From dance halls, cafés, and movies theatres, to military marching and political rallies on streets, the presence of the Allies in Iran and their interaction with each other as well as with local citizens during the WWII inhabited a variety of sites, theatrical actions, and performative practices. While their benevolent relations were performed in hosting each other in diplomatic garden parties, and jointly entertaining bored soldiers, their rivalry was manifest in their competition over investing in local artistic culture as well as in their reports on their close observation of each others' cultural undertakings. This paper looks at the recreation and performance as sites for tracing war time diplomacy and the competing activities and influences of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union in culture, between the years leading up to World War II and the initial years of the Cold War in Iran.
This research entails a close analysis of these powers’ artistic ventures (such as theatrical and musical performances), sportive and recreational activities ( including social dancing), as well as gatherings and festivities (including those relating to the ending of World War II as well as national celebrations of the respective countries). Drawing upon a variety of sources including interviews, archival materials and periodicals pertaining to the embassies and consulates of these countries and organizations with strong ties to them, including VOKS, the Iran-Soviet Friendship Association, the Iran-US Association, the British Council, and the Tudeh Party, this paper explores the production of the local political performative culture of Iran in relation to international diplomacy and the rivalry between the superpowers. Investigating the ways in which the Iranian political cultures of both the oppositional and the official were informed by this constellation of “local” and “international” conventions, techniques, and agendas, the paper further examines this important era’s lasting effects on twentieth-century Iranian performative and political culture.
