500 Persian puppets in U-Haul stolen
Thieves stole a truck filled with hundreds of handmade puppets used in a nationally touring theater show of large-scale shadow puppetry early Monday, leaving the production company empty-handed after four San Francisco shows.
The stolen U-Haul truck contained 500 puppets, props, costumes, projectors and other items used to stage puppet master Hamid Rahmanian's Persian epic “Song of the North,” which wrapped up a twoday run Sunday at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.
Rahmanian spent three years crafting the puppets and designing the show, publicist Jon Finck told the Chronicle Monday.
Thieves stole the truck while it was parked overnight at Comfort Inn By the Bay on Van Ness Avenue, Finck said. Hotel surveillance footage showed two people enter the truck around 2:30 a.m., he said.
The puppet show was set to depart San Francisco for Seattle on Monday as part of its national tour.
Rahmanian said crew members parked the truck around 9:30 p.m. Sunday and discovered it was missing around 9 a.m. Monday. He reported the theft to San Francisco police soon after. Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I am physically numb right now,” Rahmanian said.
He called the loss “devastating” and said he hoped the thieves would return the contents of the truck once they realized that the shadow puppets, production gear and merchandise have little resale value.
“There is nothing in that truck they can use,” Rahmanian said.
“Song of the North” features 500 handcrafted puppets, nine actors, projected animation, music and movement.
Based on a poem written over a thousand years ago, the show chronicles the mythological and heroic traditions of ancient Persia. Since 2009, Rahmanian has worked to modernize and reimagine this Persian epic, bringing it to a new generation in a variety of mediums, including books and concerts.