Back a second time, Rise Theatre presents: The Keeper
By Anisa Hashemi
Arts Editor
For the first time ever, Sina A. Suren puts the life and work of Ferdowsi, the Shahnameh, into theatre form made for an English speaking audience.
Ferdowsi is a very famous Persian poet and he wrote the longest epic poem in history ever written by one man: the Shahnameh (977-1010 CE).
Sina Suren graduated from JAC’s Professional Theatre Program and continued his studies at University of Toronto, Sheridan College, and Concordia University. In 2020, he founded the Rise Theatre Company(risetheatre.ca) and in February 2024, his original play. The Keeper, was presented to Montreal at Art Neuf Theatre. Due to popular demand, Rise Theatre decided to bring The Keeper back on stage but this time on a tour to Montreal at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and to Toronto at Hart House Theatre.
The play emphasizes the importance of story telling in preserving a country’s culture, language, and heritage, especially under strict and cruel tyranny and assimilation. The main character is Ferdowsi himself, the Keeper of the stories of old Persia. This play is special and unique in many ways. First of all, it presents key Shahnameh stories in a way to accommodate and invite a non-Persian audience, while still satisfying nostalgic Persian viewers. This production had 10 total showings this year, allowing it to share old Persian Culture to many different groups of people. Secondly, there are 18 actors in this production, 3 of whom are children under the age of 9. This project brought together an incredibly large team of different ages and grew meaningful connection amongst them. Of course, this show is designed to be family friendly and to incorporate children into the story, once again allowing the younger generation to be entertained with Persian myths and legends. Third, The Keeper creates a beautiful parallel between Ferdowsi’s life, as depicted in the play, and his stories. The meaningful connections and That being intelligent speculations Suren makes about a man who devotes his life to writing more than 60000 lines of poetry is beyond amazing. Fourth, this play captures it all: love, war, family dynamics, humour, and more, all in one story. Lastly, Suren decided to depict one a male Persian hero, Arash, as a woman in his production. In an interview with Ava TV, Suren says that one of the reasons he chose to make this change, is because he does not see the hero Arash, who depicts selflessness, as a solely male hero. In other words, selflessness is a trait both genders share. Thus, a female Arash would not change the hero’s essence.
All in all, this play was remarkably unique and successfully transmits the stories of the Shahnameh in a modern light.
