Review: Drama-Thriller ANAHITA'S REPUBLIC Sheds Light on the Ongoing Women's Movements in Iran

At first glance, 30-year-old Anahita leads an enviable lifestyle. Living in an opulent mansion overlooking Iran’s capital, Tehran, she enjoys her own private pool and maintains lush gardens fit for a princess. But her life takes a sudden, harrowing turn when she receives a visit from a woman whose secrets could jeopardize Anahita’s very existence. 

ANAHITA’s REPUBLIC is an ambitious contemporary drama co-written by two artists under the pseudonym, Hengameh E. Rice. Brimming with slow burning tension, it follows spitfire protagonist, Anahita, who refuses to wear a hijab and is determined to join the women’s movement against her fundamentalist government. 

The production’s set intrigues even before the curtain rises. Suspended panels resembling stained glass windows occupy the stage, creating the striking illusion of letting in the gardens’ soft green light. Two benches sit in the foreground and a desk and chair are in the background facing one of the beautiful windows. This desk is the focal point of some of the show’s most pivotal moments between siblings Anahita (Roya Yazdanmehr) and Cyrus (Yassine El Fassi El Fihri). One day, instead of receiving a shipment of illicit European goods from Cyrus’s friend, Masood (Michael Peng), the siblings are bewildered when Masood’s chador-wearing daughter, Omid (Jennie George), shows up in his place. Suspicious, Anahita speaks with Omid only to find an unlikely ally and fellow supporter of their country’s women’s movement. However, Masood suddenly comes knocking, threatening the women’s precarious rapport and inadvertently endangering all four characters’ safety.   

Despite a slow beginning, the show becomes increasingly compelling as we see more of Anahita’s larger-than-life persona and her reactions in the face of injustice. Yazdanmehr has a commanding stage presence and breathes life into her fiery character. She shares a poignant sisterly chemistry with the equally compelling George, who later steals the show in a dangerous game of mental tug-of-war with Peng. Though Anahita and Cyrus’s shared scenes paint clear pictures of the siblings’ relationship, more insight into their family’s past could add more context to Anahita and Cyrus’s power struggles. 

Simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful, ANAHITA’s REPUBLIC is a courageous story that needs to be told. The 90-minute production runs at Edmonton’s Backstage Theatre until June 4. 

Photo Credit: Au Tash Productions  

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