With Parifam, Iranian Canadian playwright Aki Yaghoubi weaves a story of hidden truths and rebirths
Play follows an Iranian architect living in Montreal who grapples with painful secrets from her past when she reunites with her childhood best friend
Nazanin Shoja (left) and Foojan Nixie Shabrang in Parifam. Photo by Sina Pourzal
The Cultch, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, and Medusa Theatre present the world premiere of Parifam from April 4 to 14 at the Historic Theatre as part of The Cultch’s Femme Festival, with showtimes at 2 pm and 7:30 pm
IRANIAN CANADIAN ARCHITECT Parifam Mana has a secret—and audiences won’t know what it is until a revelatory moment in playwright Aki Yaghoubi’s contemporary drama Parifam.
The play centres Parifam as she builds a life for herself in Montreal, designing Iranian museums by day and painting in a private studio by night. But when her childhood best friend Ramak drops in unexpectedly and begins filming a documentary of which Parifam is the unanticipated star, her repressed memories and hidden truths are brought into the limelight.
When Yaghoubi sits down with Stir over Zoom ahead of her production’s world premiere at The Cultch’s seventh annual Femme Festival this spring, two topics are at the forefront of her mind: secrets and rebirth.
“I think there are two kinds of secrets,” the Iranian Canadian playwright tells Stir. “One is a secret that you have. It’s your secret—you know it, and others don’t. The other secret is inside you, and you either don’t know it, or you knew it once but you’ve forgotten it. And both kinds of secrets keep you heavy. If you care about becoming lighter and want to access inner peace, you have to let go of these secrets. And that’s what these characters in this play are trying to do.”
Parifam grapples with the first type of secret in the play, while Ramak holds the second one. It’s as if Ramak holds up a mirror to Parifam when she re-enters the architect’s life, says Yaghoubi, forcing her to come face to face with her painful past. As she paints by herself, she is pulled into memories, triggering a concept of rebirth inspired by 13th-century Persian poet Rumi. He believed that each human experiences three births: one from the mother’s womb, a second from culture, and a third from oneself.
When Yaghoubi first started drafting Parifam in 2017, she was grieving the unexpected loss of her younger sister. As a result, the play is immensely soulful, and deeply ingrained with Yaghoubi’s own life.
“One thing about these female characters that I create,” Yaghoubi shares, “and what I do in my stories, is that I celebrate every woman who puts down her masks, secrets, and shame, and becomes her true self. Because that woman is the beginning of freedom. And hopefully she inspires others, and starts a domino of putting down masks and becoming our true selves.”
Parifam playwright Aki Yaghoubi.
Yaghoubi immigrated to Montreal from Iran during the Green Movement in 2009, and compares the current dictatorship in the country to the influence of a cult. Leaving Iran was a way for her to continue pursuing theatre with an unrestrained sense of self.
“The Islamic regime has been trying to dictate to Iranians this message of, ‘If you leave, you will lose everything. Look at all those who left—they lost everything, and they wished they had never left’,” Yaghoubi says. “That message has been the core of so many movies, TV shows, and novels in Iran, and frankly, even of diaspora literature. But I’m interested in portraying our resilience and our success after leaving.”
Parifam was developed with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Teesri Duniya Theatre, and Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, and a first reading of the play directed by fellow Iranian artist Panthea Vatandoost was presented at Ruby Slippers Theatre’s Advanced Theatre Festival in February 2023. From there, Vatandoost’s company Medusa Theatre began producing the work in collaboration with Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, and it was selected to take part in this year’s Femme Festival.
For many years, Yaghoubi only wrote plays in her mother language of Farsi, but the polyglot also speaks the ancient Iranian language Tati, French, and English. Parifam marks her first foray into English playwriting, which she has now been embracing more over the past years.
The upcoming performance stars Foojan Nixie Shabrang in the title role of Parifam, and Nazanin Shoja as Ramak. As Yaghoubi gears up for the work’s official launch, she says she’s excited to finally see Parifam come to life on stage.
“You see, there are a lot of experiences that people talk about that they crave, that they wish to experience before they die,” Yaghoubi says. “And I think about that a lot. I think about death a lot. And this is what I realized after thinking about it a lot: I think the most important experience we could have in our life—the sole experience that if we don’t have and leave this world, it would be a pity—is accessing inner peace. And the path to inner peace is through healing our wounds and becoming our true selves.
“My goal with storytelling, and specifically with Parifam, is to reach out to the hearts of as many wounded people as I can, and give them hope that healing is achievable, that reaching inner peace is possible, and that connecting to our true selves is possible. If we experience it, we will give that to the next generation, as opposed to not experiencing it, and passing our wounds to the next generation. I’m not saying that I’m fully healed—I know that I have a long way to go. But I am inspired to continue my healing journey while I am creating, and I want to inspire others as well by my stories.” 
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