Recognition of Pahlavan Kachal, the Oldest Text of Puppet Show in Iran

The present article has made use of one of the two written accounts of the puppet shows in Tehran dating back to a century ago, compiled by the renowned scholar in the Iranian studies, Roman Andreevic Galunov, which are the oldest known text. In an analysis of Galunov’s script, the elements incorporated in the show were extracted and compared to more recent elements of marionette shows to provide a prospective of the variance between the recorded performance and other, more recent performances, as well as the sociocultural influences contributing to the formal aspects of the genre. In the review of literature findings of the philology on the subject has been provided. In the thesis statement, the genealogy of works on the Persian puppet shows and Pahlavan Kachal performances compiled by the author have been listed in order to find the information gap in the field. The article then goes on to analyze features such as the plot, characters, performing aspects such as the set, location and the language employed. Ultimately, the influence of the contemporary sociocultural events on the show are examined.