The City Theater is Tehran's principal performing arts venue — a round concrete building in Laleh Park whose distinctive silhouette, with its circular form and protruding elements, makes it one of the more interesting examples of Iranian modernist architecture from the early 1970s. It houses four separate stages of varying sizes and presents an ambitious programme of Iranian and international theatre throughout the year.
Even if you do not attend a performance, the building is worth seeing from outside for its architecture, and the lobby — open before performances — gives a sense of how seriously Tehran takes its theatre scene. Check the programme on arrival; even without Persian, a physical production of a classical Persian text can be absorbing. The garden terrace café is a pleasant place to wait for a show.