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Children’s theatre in Iran reflects two distinct categories: performances in schools or community centres and plays in private theatre spaces. Hasan Dolatabadi is the most prominent Iranian children’s playwright whose plays are the main representatives of the first category. The second category has a longer history and provides us with popular plays which can be analysed to see what features have contributed to their success. As this study scrutinizes Dolatabadi’s plays for similar features, it becomes clear that they lack aesthetic value and concern for the public. However, because they reinforce beliefs that further the ideological causes, they are well supported and publicized. Their increasing popularity coincides with the marginalization of unfunded plays, which may ultimately damage Iranian children’s theatre as well as Iranian culture.