The turning of theater producers in Iran to documentary theater began in the early 2011s and gradually increased. This was while the theoretical foundations of this new form of theater, although new in Iran, unlike the West, had not taken root as much as they should have and perhaps still have not. The lack of accurate knowledge of this form of theater led to the production of very diverse works; from theaters that are never considered documentary, but call themselves documentary, to theaters that may not even claim to be documentary, but were actually documentary. In both groups, we can witness both works that had the desired quality and works that lacked it. Also, among the theaters that were truly documentary, we have witnessed its varieties in terms of content and form. From theaters that dealt with social themes to more personal theaters that were autobiographical; from theaters that had theatricality to theaters that were presented in the form of lecture-performance. But what makes this research necessary is that all these performances demonstrate a social necessity for documentary theater production. That is, socially, conditions were created that prompted producers to turn to producing this form of theater and experiment with its different forms. It seems that among producers who have avoided the current trend of theaters and prefer smaller halls with fewer spectators to being in the spotlight of theater, there is also a greater interest in this form of theater.

The present study is a qualitative research based on the descriptive-analytical method. In addition, it also examines the social necessities of produced works that are considered documentary according to the definition of this research, based on Carol Martin's theories. This article, based on Carol Martin's theories and the six functions listed in her valuable article "Bodies of Evidence", categorizes documentary theaters that have been performed in the last decade in Iran. The ultimate goal of this article is to examine the performed documentary theaters based on their functions and to address their social necessities. In this way, it can be understood what impulses make has been more effective on theater producers to produce documentary theaters.