Hami Rahmanian, an Iranian multi-disciplinary artist who has worked on Dinsey's "Tarzan," "The Emperor's New Groove," and "Dinosaur," among other cinematic projects, is gearing up for a retelling of a story from Iran's ancient 55,000-verse epic poem called "Shahname," as reported by WBEZ.
This iteration will be featured in his 83-minute-long "Song of the North" production that will employ a 483-strong army of shadow puppets, to be held at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University on Jan. 27.
In addition, a Jan. 26 show will also be exclusively held for students and faculty during their field trip following a performance during the annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.
'Song of the North,' A Culmination of Iranian Culture and Experience
In its entirety, a total of nine ensemble members will be switching with each other to "pilot" the puppets and their respective props with extreme elegance and mastery, as they tell the story of a heroine who is in a quest to stop a war amidst her efforts to save her lover.
This particular story was plucked straight from the epic poem, otherwise known as "Book of Kings," which was written by Persian poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi in 1010 AD as a means to collate his country's myth and history.
"The 'Shahnameh' is like 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' for Iranians," said Rahmanian during an interview with the Washington Post, adding that it has even more relevance than its Greek counterpart.
For the artist, the most recent reference would be during the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" protest in Iran which directly referenced the "Shahnameh" to generate public conversation.
Rahmanian believes that telling the story in the West has a lot of merit, as it is fairly unknown here especially because this is a chance to offer the nuanced aspects of the Iranian image through culture, something that is often vilified within politics.
"Iran is like a symphony - but in the West, you only hear one note from the symphony, and it is not a very happy note," he noted.
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Hamid Rahmanian's Efforts to Spread Iran's Stories
Rahmanian decided to move away from his career within the movie industry to focus on realizing his mission of expanding the Western audiences' knowledge and appreciation of Iranian stories like the "Shahnameh."
For this goal, he has even designed and fully illustrated a 600-page book retelling of the epic. In another effort for this particular cause, he and papercraft specialist Simon Arizpe created an award-winning pop-up book dubbed "Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King."
However, around ten years ago, the artist initially centered this goal around the medium of theater because his years of experience designing and filmmaking are directly translatable there, along with the medium being quite cost-effective compared to movie production.
This shift in his approach resulted in his shadow puppet stage projects "Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic," which was made in 2016, and "Song of the North," which will take the stage in the upcoming show in George Mason University.
The latter play features an original score made by Iranian-born composer Loga Ramin Torkian, with its aesthetic made in the image of old artifacts from the region.
"Song of the North" made its debut in Paris last 2022 and broke through the US market later that same year at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
This 2024 show was almost not possible, however, as Rahmanian recalls an incident with thieves in the latter parts of 2023 that resulted in puppets, costumes, and technical equipment being either stolen, defaced, or destroyed.
Thankfully, a GoFundMe campaign was able to raise more than $100,000 which was then used for recovery efforts. For Rahmanian, this act of kindness was "beyond [his] imagination," enabling him to quickly rebuild what was lost in time for the performances this year.
"America is my host, and I feel I need to give back," said the Iranian artist with a mission.
