The present study aims to examine the function of Aristotelian catharsis and Brechtian distancing and to assess the capacity of these two frameworks to explain audience experience in Iranian–Islamic Ta’ziyeh. The research adopts a qualitative, comparative–interpretive approach. Data were collected through documentary and library research and analyzed through textual and conceptual analysis. At the first level, catharsis, fear, pity, plot, recognition, and reversal in Aristotle’s theory were examined with particular reference to Oedipus Rex. At the second level, distancing, the actor–role relationship, interruption, montage, the disclosure of theatrical convention, and audience reception in Brecht’s theatre were analyzed through Mother Courage and Her Children and The Exception and the Rule. At the third level, the Ta’ziyeh of the Martyrdom of Imam Husayn was analyzed as a case of Iranian–Islamic ritual performance and compared with the two preceding models. The findings show that emotion and cognition are present in both Aristotelian and Brechtian models, although they are organized toward different ends. In Ta’ziyeh, the audience’s prior knowledge of the event’s outcome, the distinction between the performer and the sacred figure, and the overt theatrical convention do not prevent emotional involvement; rather, they operate alongside collective mourning, Ashura memory, and ritual participation. This comparison therefore preserves the cultural and aesthetic logic of Ta’ziyeh. The study ultimately argues that audience experience in Ta’ziyeh cannot be explained by catharsis or distancing alone, but emerges from the simultaneity of emotional involvement, representational.