UC Santa Cruz

The Whispers behind the Battle Line, by the prominent Iranian playwright Alireza Naderi in 1993, is one of the most important plays about the Iran–Iraq war. This highly acclaimed play which has never been translated, is valuable for English-reading scholars and artists because deals with one of the most important events in contemporary Iranian history. Also, its production history shows the relationship of theatre to the state and the process and effect of censorship in theater in Iran.

In this thesis, I exploreed the social and political context in which the play was written, the role of censorship in Iranian theatre-making process. I finally concluded with an assessment of the current state of Iranian dramaturgy as it pertains to this history.