TEHRAN — The Marionette Museum at Ferdowsi Hall in Tehran has reopened following its national registration, presenting a collection of about 800 marionettes created for the puppet operas of the Aran Puppet Theatre Group over more than two decades.
The reopening ceremony was held on Saturday, coinciding with the birthday of veteran Iranian theatre director and puppetry pioneer Behrouz Gharibpour, founder and head of the Aran Puppet Theatre Group.
The museum was established through a collaboration between the Rudaki Foundation and the Aran Puppet Theatre Group. Its collection comprises approximately 800 marionettes used in Aran’s puppet operas since 2004, offering a record of an important chapter in the development of contemporary puppet opera in Iran.
The collection includes puppets and stage elements from productions inspired by Iranian literature, history and mythology, bringing together theatre, music and opera. Over more than two decades, these productions have contributed to a distinctive strand of contemporary Iranian puppetry.
One of the museum’s defining features is its rotating display system. The puppets will be exhibited according to the company’s performance repertoire, with different groups of puppets periodically brought out for public viewing. The system is also intended to provide improved conditions for the preservation and conservation of the collection.
The museum has an educational component as well. Through special guided tours, visitors will be introduced to the process of making a marionette, from the initial design and construction to preparing the puppet for its appearance on stage.
The museum therefore serves both as a repository of Iran’s puppet-opera heritage and as a space where audiences can see the puppets that have played roles in some of Aran’s major productions.
The Aran Puppet Theatre Group was founded by Gharibpour in 2003 and has specialized in puppet opera, developing a distinctive form of marionette performance rooted in Iranian literary, musical and theatrical traditions. Its productions have included Rostam and Sohrab, Macbeth, Ashura, Rumi, Hafez, Layli and Majnun, Saadi and Khayyam.
The company’s work combines marionette theatre with Iranian musical traditions and elements of ta’ziyeh, the traditional Iranian form of religious passion play. Its productions have been presented in Iran as well as internationally, including in Europe and Asia.
Ferdowsi Hall is the company’s principal performance venue. Located opposite Vahdat Hall, the venue was constructed in 2002 on the site of a former decoration workshop and has a capacity of approximately 140 spectators. It opened in 2004 with Gharibpour’s production of Rostam and Sohrab.
The hall was specifically designed for marionette theatre, particularly the large-scale puppets used by the Aran company. Some of the puppets measure approximately 80 centimeters in height.
The Aran Puppet Theatre Group has also established a dedicated educational workshop known as the Aran School, where puppetry techniques and related theatrical practices are taught.
Gharibpour, born in Sanandaj in 1950, has worked across theatre, cinema and puppetry. He has directed and designed more than 50 theatrical and puppet-opera productions and has written and translated more than 20 works.
The reopening and national registration of the Marionette Museum gives the company’s extensive collection a dedicated institutional setting, preserving puppets and stage objects that document more than two decades of Iranian puppet opera while introducing audiences to the artistic and technical processes behind their creation.