Yaser Khaseb's Work for Kids Enthralls Adult Audiences

Hamid Etemedi Todeshki and Yaser Khaseb in SCT's "Mysterious Gifts: Theatre of Iran." Photo by Chris Bennion.

Don't be fooled by the fact that it's playing at Seattle Children's Theatre : If there's one can't-miss theatre performance this weekend, it's Yaser Khaseb's Mysterious Gifts: Theatre of Iran . A brilliant movement artist, Khaseb has put together a stunning piece featuring dance, puppetry, and mime that crosses language barriers and is as likely (if not moreso) to impress adults as children. There's only six performances left through this Sunday, so this is also your last chance to see one of the first performances by an Iranian artist in the U.S. in 30 years ( tickets $15-$34 ).

The show unfolds in three segments, lasting a bit over an hour (including intermission). The first segment, and really the most forgettable, is a montage of different Iranian dance styles that trips nimbly from the traditional to the modern. It's a fine opening, and gives Khaseb the opportunity to show off his acrobatic abilities, but it's really in the second act that Khaseb's considerable talents shine.

The concept behind Act 2 is pretty simple: the struggle with the Self. Khaseb disposes with narrative and character, performing as an everyman dressed in black and wearing a mask. The Self he's in conflict with is a puppet dressed in red. The magic isn't so much in the puppetry (which is really just Khaseb's own arm stuck through the doll) as it is acrobatics and movement. The sequence is actually fairly violent. After embracing like brothers, the puppet and Khaseb begin a fighting in a comic way, recalling the slapstick of the Three Stooges, before descending into real violence, each throttling the other to near the point of death before confronting their own fear of mortality and desperately seeking to revive the other. It's a power and heart-wrenching performance, which Khaseb pulls off with his own hand.

Act 3 is the most visually ambitious and includes the most set-work. A retelling of the Pygmalion story, a large platform covered in dust and dirt is rolled out. Hamid Etemedi Todeshki, another performer working with Khaseb, is on the platform, dressed in white. He washes his hands, pours water into a bucket, and begins sifting dirt into the water to make clay. He creates a few small bits, then fires them with a blow-torch. He pours more dirt and water into a oil drum, mixes it, climbs in and stomps on it to knead the clay, until finally, he pulls from the drum a his human statue, performed by Khaseb.

Even though it became obvious where this was going, it was still stunning to see Khaseb pulled from the drum, a lifeless lump of clay that Todeshki dutifully crafts onstage, and who eventually comes to life and destroys his creator. It's a deliciously dirty (in the literal sense) performance, with dust and mud cast across the stage, Todeshki almost as caked in clay as Khaseb by the end.