TAFF Art Society, in collaboration with VIVA Alliance, brings a new play, To Love Or Not To Love, by Majid Tafreshi to the Annex theatre from August 27 to 30.
Inspired by Nezami Ganjavi’s twelfth-century romantic epic Khosrow and Shirin, Tafreshi’s To Love Or Not To Love is an original absurd play-within-a-half-musical. Set inside a contemporary rehearsal room, the production follows a group of actors attempting to stage the ancient love story, only to find that their own relationships, desires, and unresolved histories gradually become entangled with the myth they are performing. As rehearsals unfold, the boundaries between actor and character begin to dissolve. The legendary love triangle of Khosrow, King of Persia, Shirin, an Armenian princess and Farhad, a gifted sculptor becomes a contemporary reflection on love, power, identity, migration, cultural representation, and the enduring impact of war.
Blending live music, classical Persian poetry, humour, and absurd theatricality, the production moves between myth and reality, inviting audiences into a rehearsal where performance becomes a space for questioning both the past and the present.
Rather than just retelling Khosrow and Shirin, Majid Tafreshi reimagines the emotional and philosophical themes of Nezami’s epic through the lens of contemporary theatre. Like one of the greatest romances in Persian literature, the production’s themes continue to resonate across cultures and generations.
At a time when genuine human connection feels increasingly fragile, To Love Or Not To Love asks a timeless question:
Can love truly save us—or is it simply another beautiful pain we continue to rehearse?
To Love Or Not To Love, written and directed by Majid Tafreshi, runs August 27–30, 2026, at the Annex, 823 Seymour Street. Visit showpass.com/to-love-or-not-to-love for tickets and show detail