Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran
Theater troupes in Tehran and four other provinces have resumed street performances after all cultural activities were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic for over three months.
Smile under your mask; this is what these young Iranian actors try to bring about amid one of the hardest times in man's history.
As living with coronvirus has become a new normal, Iran has partly resumed cultural activities, including street theater.
For a start, troupes from across the country have taken the stage here in Tehran's downtown to perform plays about the pandemic and its associated outcomes and to refresh the mood of passers by.
The coronavirus outbreak wreaked unprecedented havoc on the world's economy, forcing many businesses to shut down, and leaving millions unemployed.
In this play, actors try to highlight the issue while promoting charity work.
The audience are advised to observe health protocols and social distancing while watching the performances.
Some of them have found the street plays not only entertaining, but informative as well.
After a sharp fall in the number of new daily infections and fatalities in Iran, the curve has once again made an upward move, signaling a second wave of the coronavirus.
Most cultural activities are still suspended, but the Iranian government has decided that movie theaters and concert halls reopen at 50-percent capacity as of June 21. While stage theaters are still banned due to the pandemic, street performances have come back with a vengeance.
They are playing their dual role as a means to both entertain people and raise awareness of the need to observe health protocols to fight the coronavirus.