About

Scarlet Stone is a new multidisciplinary and collaborative dance/theatre/music/animation work by Shahrokh Yadegari, in collaboration with Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam, featuring performances by Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam, Afshin Mofid, Ida Saki, Mariam Peretz, and Gordafarid. Scarlet Stone is based on the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi and the last work of Siavash Kasrai, Mohreh Sorkh (Scarlet Stone). It uses the modern rendition of the ancient Persian mythology by Ferdowsi and Kasrai to portray the current struggle of the people of Iran, especially those of the youth and women, in their brave quest for freedom and democracy.

Performance will be in Persian with English supertitles.

Scarlet Stone has been in production since the 2009 uprising in Iran and has been generously funded by prestigious grants such as the the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of California Research in the Arts Institute Production Grant, UCSD Arts and Humanities Innovation Fund, and by a grant from Chehre-Azad Endowment Funds at UC San Diego.
  

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Synopsis

Performance will be in Persian with English supertitles.

The storyline of this production is based on the story of Rostam and Sohrab, one of the most famous mythological stories of Shahnameh by Ferdowsi (935-1020 AD), and the last work of Siavash Kasrai, Mohreye Sorkh.  Ferdowsi is one of the most important poets of Iran.  He spent 30 years collecting the Persian ancient mythology and historical facts, and putting them in poetry form in Persian language in his book Shahnameh (The book of Kings). Ferdowsi completed Shahnameh at a time that the Persian language was close to extinction due to the occupation of Iran by the Arabs and subsequent banning of the use of Persian language in Persia for over two centuries. By writing the Shahnameh, Ferdowsi not only preserved the ancient Persian mythology and historical facts, but also revived the Persian language and saved it from extinction.

In the mythological story, Sohrab is the love child of Rostam (the immortal hero of Iran) and Tahmineh (the princess of a neighboring country) who actively and proudly pursued Rostam, and believed that their union and offspring (Sohrab) would bring peace and prosperity to the region. The story ends with the tragic slaying of Sohrab by Rostam in a battle (without either knowing their relation to each other).  Based on Shahnameh, the poem Mohreye Sorkh by Siavash Kasrai, is set at the last moment of Sohrab’s life, after having been injured by Rostam.

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