Residencies

• 27.04 > 29.04.2023

A man wro­te on his Instagram account that he and his wife, who is cur­rent­ly in jail as a poli­ti­cal priso­ner, pro­mi­sed each other to run each night on either side of the prison’s wall. In the months befo­re her arrest, they had been trai­ning to run as part of a plan to lea­ve Iran and reach England. They pre­pa­red to cover the 27 km stretch of the Channel Tunnel at the only pos­si­ble moment, the five hours bet­ween the last train of the night and the first one of the mor­ning. But when his wife was arre­sted a week befo­re their depar­tu­re, this trai­ning for a new life was interrupted. 

Amir Reza Koohestani uses the sto­ry of their long-dis­tan­ce trai­ning on both sides of the wall as a star­ting point to reflect on con­tem­po­ra­ry Iranian soci­e­ty. It’s a run that con­ti­nues des­pi­te eve­ry­thing. We see a woman and a man on sta­ge. In a pre­ci­se inter­loc­king mecha­nism, their bre­a­thless dia­lo­gues inter­sect with their inte­ri­or mono­lo­gues whe­re clas­si­cal Persian poe­try echoes all pos­si­ble trans­ac­ti­ons in the dark­ness of a night. 

Koohestani has fami­li­a­ri­sed past fes­ti­val audien­ces with his powerful and poe­tic per­for­man­ces. With this pro­ject – rehear­sed with his com­pa­ny in Tehran over the past months, and pre­mie­ring now at the fes­ti­val – he pier­ces the dark­ness with a dia­lo­gue on his country’s present.

© Yasi Moradi