Theater
Amir Reza Koohestani / Mehr Theatre Group
Blind Runner
5.5 hours until the first train and 38 kilometers to the opposite shore,
two people start running
Once a week a husband visits his wife, who is a political prisoner. The couple’s conversations during these supervised visits unfold frustratingly at cross purposes. While the wife is disheartened and her spirits low, the husband, though a free man, is tormented by loneliness. The wife proposes an idea to her husband: to participate in a race in Paris as guide runner for a blind woman. After finishing this race, the husband decides to accompany the woman on another race.
This work by Amir Reza Koohestani, who has created many works that examine contemporary Iranian history, skillfully weaves together a number of true stories about running. These include a running campaign for the release of an arrested journalist and the undersea tunnel refugees enter at night and risk their lives to run the length of between the last and first trains. The multilayered story, which resonates with many of the issues facing the world today, is told through highly stripped-down elements.
In front of a video projection, two actors run back and forth across the stage again and again. As though their freedom is at stake in the simple act of running.
10.26 (Sat) 19:00 ★
10.27 (Sun) 13:30 ◆♡
★ Post-show talk
◆ Festival Share Cafe (Language: Japanese only)
♡ Childcare Service (reservation required 7 days before each performance)
Duration: 60 min
Persian with Japanese and English Surtitles
⚠️ Audiences may not enter after the performance has started. No admission for children elementary school age and below.
Advance tickets:
Adult ¥3,500
Youth (25 and under), Students ¥3,000
High School Students & Younger ¥1,000
Pair ¥6,500 (Advance tickets only)
Day tickets are the same price as advance tickets.
Seating: Unreserved
Amir Reza Koohestani
Tehran, Iran
Born in 1978, Amir Reza Koohestani is an Iranian playwright and director. At the age of sixteen, he began publishing short stories in local newspapers. Attracted to cinema, he took courses in directing and cinematography and created two unfinished films. After a brief experience as performer, he devoted his time to write his first plays for the Mehr Theatre Group. In 2012, his film Modest Reception, of which the script was co-written by Koohestani and Mani Haghighi, won the Netpac Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. The following year, Festival actoral in Marseille (France) commissioned Koohestani to write and stage a new play, Timeloss. From October 2014 to March 2015, during a residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart Koohestani wrote the play Hearing. Summerless is the third part of a trilogy about time and memory (Timeloss, Hearing, Summerless) premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, 2018). In May 2023, after almost two years without touring, Koohestani created Blind Runner with his company. Koohestani presented his work at Kyoto Experiment 2019 and this will be his second appearance at the festival.
Text and Direction: Amir Reza Koohestani
Dramaturgy: Samaneh Ahmadian
Director’s Assistant: Dariush Faezi
Lighting and Scenography: Éric Soyer
Video: Yasi Moradi, Benjamin Krieg
Music: Phillip Hohenwarter, Matthias Peyker
Costume Design: Negar Nobakht Foghani
Performers: Ainaz Azarhoush, Mohammad Reza Hosseinzadeh
English translation and surtitle adaptation: Massoumeh Lahidji
Surtitles Operator: Negar Nobakht Foghani
Production, administration and promotion: Pierre Reis
Co-produced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Berliner Festspiele Athens Epidaurus Festival, Festival d’Automne à Paris Théâtre de la Bastille, La rose des vents – scène nationale Lille Métropole – Villeneuve d’Ascq, Théâtre La Vignette - Université Paul Valery, Théâtre populaire romand – Centre neuchâtelois des arts vivants, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Triennale Milano Teatro, Festival delle Colline Torinesi / Fondazione TPE, Noorderzon Festival of Performing Arts & Society
Creation residencies: Théâtre populaire romand – Centre neuchâtelois des arts vivants, La Chaux-de-Fonds, KWP Kunstenwerkplaats
With the support of The Institut français and The Ministry of Culture – DRAC Île-de-France
World Premiere at Theatre Les Tanneurs, Brussels on May 16th 2023 as part of Kunstenfestivaldesarts
Japanese surtitles: Kei Saito
Japanese surtitles cooperation: Konomi Murayama
Performance in Kyoto supported by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan | Japan Arts Council
Presented by Kyoto Experiment
