The body as realized in traditional Iranian theater is presented in a variety of ways that heighten its physicality, as a result of more than thirty years of ethnographic research with traditional performance troupes. This presentation creates an underscoring of the body itself as disjunctive from the body as seen in everyday non-theatrical life. The two main forms of traditional theater are the passion play, ta'ziyeh, and the comic improvisatory form, ru-hozi. In each form, performers must present their bodies as representations of heightened versions of the normal corpus, or as distorted caricatures of normality. In both forms men represent women, but using very different representational techniques of distortion to show that although women are represented the performers are not to be mistaken for real women. Techniques of costuming, body movement and voice modulation assure this. Likewise, in both forms the male body is also presented using distortion to present characters that are exaggerated versions of reality. In ta'ziyeh stylized gesture, the use of exaggerated vocal techniques and codified clothing create bodies that are larger than life. This is aided by the use of horses, which expand the presence of performers. In ru-hozi performers, particularly the central black-faced clown figure, engage in elaborate movements that twist and turn the body into contortions that are not seen in everyday life. Other male characters are equally curious in their movements and bodily attitudes. The theatrical body in these forms thus represents a strong departure from everyday reality. In this way, the body as presented underscores what Jakobson would call the "poetic dimension" of communication. Through presenting the body as a "marked" form, the non-reality of the body is emphasized, and thus the viewers are alerted to the significance of movement and body attitude in the performance. In ta'ziyeh much of the poignancy of the tragedy is conveyed by this marked body presentation. Conversely, it is the distorted body of ru-hozi performance that creates the incongruity that underlies the humor in these presentations. The body in this manner is also politicized. In traditional Iranian culture the normal body is problematic. The theatrical body by being both "not" the actual body and representing the actual body evades the religious, political and cultural taboos that surround the image of the body. It thus allows for an essentially political statment about physicality that simultaneously avoids social critique.