Nodbeh — Theatre Production (March 2016)
Nodbeh, written by the prominent Iranian director and playwright Bahram Beyzai, is an ensemble-driven performance inspired by the Persian notion of nodbeh—a call/lamentsong that bridges private grief and public ritual. Built from chorus work, tightly patterned movement, and live vocal textures, the piece moves between whispered confession and collective outcry. Staged in a spare black-box setting, the actors advance and retreat in lines and clusters, using breath, footwork, and canon to shape the rhythm of the evening. Short scenes—some spoken, some sung—circle themes of longing, memory, and witness.
Baharak’s Performance
As a vocalist-actor, Baharak Abdolifard anchors the production’s musical spine. Her solos thread micro-ornamented phrases with plain-spoken text, letting the voice slip between lament and testimony. In the central sequence she leads the ensemble’s call-and-response, shaping entries with breath cues and holding silence just long enough to reset the audience’s ear. The result is a performance that is both restrained and piercing—carrying the ritual idea of nodbeh into a contemporary stage language.