Mary Apick's "Beneath the Veil" Echoes Voices of Silenced Iranian Women
Directed by Iranian -American actor/director Mary Apick, "Beneath the Veil" is a choreographed play, depicting the tales of 10 women silenced and oppressed in Iran, including Iranian- Canadian Journalist Zahra Kazemi, who was taken into custody, tortured and killed in a prison in Tehran in 2003. Kazemi's story isn't the only poignant one in the play, which also includes touches of comedy, music and choreographed dance (ballet) performed by Mary Apick along with eight actors, two musicians and a singer.
Apick's main objective is to educate people about life in the Middle East and the challenges - and abuse - faced by women. The play has won the Critics’ Choice Award at the Los Angeles Theatre Festival in 2005, and enjoyed success at the Kennedy Centre in 2006, where Laura Bush, then U.S. first lady, was the production’s honorary chair.
Apick was a child star in Tehran in the 1960s and seventies, an Iranian of Armenian heritage whose mother was also a well-known actor and whose father worked for the U.S. military. She became a trendsetter for Western dress in Tehran, and appeared from a young age on Octopus, a Saturday Night Live-style Iranian satirical show. Apick left Iran in 1979 and has made Los Angeles her home for the past 30 years. Growing up, Apick studied piano (she graduated from the University of Tehran’s conservatory of music) and ballet, passions she has incorporated into Beneath the Veil.
The play premiered in Toronto last Saturday and is headed to New York, Chicago and Dallas. For an updated list of screenings check out our events section.