In the twentieth century, Western theatre practitioners, aware of the gap between actor and spectator and the barrier between the stage and the auditorium, experimented with ways to bridge this gap and cross barriers, which in the western theatrical tradition have been ignored over the centuries. Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht, Grotowski, and more recently Peter Brook are only a few of the figures who tried to engage spectators and enable them to participate more fully in the play. Yet in Iran there has existed for over three centuries a form of theatre which, thanks to its unique method of approaching reality, creates precise moments in which the worlds of the actor and the spectator come together in perfect unity. It is called ???taziyeh???, and the aim of this thesis is to offer a comprehensive account of this complex and sophisticated theatre. The thesis examines taziyeh through the accounts of eyewitnesses, and explores taziyeh???s method of acting, its form, concepts, the aims of each performance, its sources and origins, and the evolution of this Iranian phenomenon from its emergence in the tenth century. Developed from the philosophical point of view of Iranian mysticism on the one hand, and annual mourning ceremonies with ancient roots on the other, taziyeh has been performed by hundreds of different professional groups for more than three hundred years. Each performance is a significant event in the experience of actors and spectators. The thesis argues that through a careful and comprehensive exploration of taziyeh from its emergence to our time, we can ultimately experience a new horizon in theatre in which we may discover theatrical potentiality and dynamism in a way that has not yet been achieved in conventional Western theatre.

In the twentieth century, Western theatre practitioners, aware of the gap between actor and spectator and the barrier between the stage and the auditorium, experimented with ways to bridge this gap and cross barriers, which in the western theatrical tradition have been ignored over the centuries. Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht, Grotowski, and more recently Peter Brook are only a few of the figures who tried to engage spectators and enable them to participate more fully in the play. Yet in Iran there has existed for over three centuries a form of theatre which, thanks to its unique method of approaching reality, creates precise moments in which the worlds of the actor and the spectator come together in perfect unity. It is called ???taziyeh???, and the aim of this thesis is to offer a comprehensive account of this complex and sophisticated theatre. The thesis examines taziyeh through the accounts of eyewitnesses, and explores taziyeh???s method of acting, its form, concepts, the aims of each performance, its sources and origins, and the evolution of this Iranian phenomenon from its emergence in the tenth century. Developed from the philosophical point of view of Iranian mysticism on the one hand, and annual mourning ceremonies with ancient roots on the other, taziyeh has been performed by hundreds of different professional groups for more than three hundred years. Each performance is a significant event in the experience of actors and spectators. The thesis argues that through a careful and comprehensive exploration of taziyeh from its emergence to our time, we can ultimately experience a new horizon in theatre in which we may discover theatrical potentiality and dynamism in a way that has not yet been achieved in conventional Western theatre.