BLIND RUNNER
A Mehr Theatre Group production
Part of Under the Radar Festival, in partnership with St. Ann's Warehouse
The New York premiere is made possible with the support of Nimruz (USA)
WRITTED AND DIRECTED BY: Amir Reza Koohestani
Once a week, a husband comes to visit his captive wife who has been detained as a political prisoner in Tehran. Spied on by cameras and microphones, their conversations become increasingly distant, inhibiting their ability to share their daily lives. At his wife’s insistence, the husband agrees to train and guide a young blind woman through a Parisian footrace. As they come to learn more about each other, the unlikely couple grows close and finds a common rhythm. At the race’s end, they set upon a second challenge: can they run the Channel Tunnel to England, covering 38 kilometers in a few hours and avoiding being hit by the first train of the morning?
Alternating between the confines of prison and the racer’s unseen road, Blind Runner embraces a hypnotic rhythm scored by the musicality of the Persian language. Director Amir Reza Koohestani renders his signature stripped-down staging, augmented by video, letting the spectator’s gaze move freely from the performers’ bodies to their leviathan faces. A poetic vision gradually emerges of the human struggle, of mutual aid, of the marathon we run without freedom in sight.
Blind Runner is presented in Persian language with English supertitles.
It is appropriate for audiences ages 12 and older.-
Text and direction: Amir Reza Koohestani
Performers: Ainaz Azarhoush, Mohammad Reza Hosseinzadeh
Dramaturgy: Samaneh Ahmadian
Director’s assistant: Dariush Faezi
Lights and scenography: Éric Soyer
Video: Yasi Moradi, Benjamin Krieg
Music: Phillip Hohenwarter, Matthias Peyker
Costumes: Negar Nobakht Foghani
English translation and surtitle adaptation: Massoumeh Lahidji
Supertitles operator: Negar Nobakht Foghani
Production, administration, promotion: Pierre Reis / Mehr Theatre Group
GALLERY
““Mesmerizing, stunningly performed, deeply moving.””
AMIR REZA KOOHESTANI (Playwright & Director) was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1978. At a young age, he began publishing short stories in local newspapers and working in film. After a brief experience as a performer, he devoted his time to writing his first plays – And the Day Never Came (1999) and The Murmuring Tales (2000) – for the Mehr Theatre Group. Koohestani’s third play, Dance on Glasses (2001), gained him international notoriety and the support of several European theatrical artistic directors and festivals. Further work includes the plays Recent Experiences (from the original text by Canadian writers Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren, 2003); Amid the Clouds (2005); Dry Blood & Fresh Vegetables (2007); Quartet: A Journey North (2008); Where Were You on January 8th? (2009); Ivanov (2011); and The Fourth Wall (from the original play England by Tim Crouch, 2012) which was presented one hundred times in an art gallery in Tehran. Over the past decade, Koohestani wrote and directed the plays Timeloss (2013), Hearing (2015) and Summerless (2018), forming the “Time Trilogy” as presented at the Festival TNB, in Rennes, France in November 2018. Since 2006, Koohestani has been independently working across Europe at Munchner Kammerspiele, Thalia Theater, Deutsches Theater, La Comédie de Genève, Riksteatern and Theater Freiburg, creating more than 15 new productions. He has established strong creative partnerships with the actress, playwright and director Mahin Sadri; light designer and scenographer Éric Soyer; composer Matthias Peyker and video artist Philip Hohenwarter. Koohestani also regularly collaborates with the actor and film director, Mani Haghighi, with whom he co-wrote the script to the movies Modest Reception (Netpac Award at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival) and Substraction (July 2023). In May 2023, after a 2 year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Koohestani and his company created and are touring Blind Runner, which premiered in Brussels as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts.
AINAZ AZARHOUSH (Performer) is an Iranian actress known for her roles in films such as Fish and Cat, The Paternal House, and The Pig, with her work gaining recognition both within Iran and internationally. In theater, she starred in Hearing, directed by Amir Reza Koohestani, which was staged at major festivals, including Festival d’Avignon, Schaubühne in Berlin and Festival d'Automne in Paris, where it received praise from both critics and audiences alike.
Currently, Ainaz has expanded her work to include directing and writing, with her short film Death of a Seagull now in post-production. She also stars in Blind Runner, directed by Koohestani, which premiered at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels and, now on a world tour, has been celebrated by audiences around the globe.
MOHAMMAD REZA HOSSEINZADEH (Performer) (born in 1978, in Tehran) is an actor, producer, assistant director, and production manager who has been active since 1996. He began his professional career by acting in Les Misérables and has since performed in over 24 plays, including Winter 1988, Dance of the Torn Papers, So Until Tomorrow, Bitter Coffee, etc. His latest performance, Blind Runner, directed by Amir Reza Koohestani, is currently being presented at international festivals.
Mohammad Reza has collaborated with prominent directors such as Mohammad Yaghoubi, Shabnam Tolouei, Siamak Ehsaei, and Amir Reza Koohestani. In addition to acting, he has served as assistant director, production manager and project supervisor on many of Koohestani’s major international projects, including Amid The Clouds, Timeloss, Hearing, and Summerless.
Recently, Hosseinzadeh produced the TV Shows Concertino and Setarehsaz, and he is currently the Executive producer for The White Magic TV serie, directed by Aida Panahandeh.
His works reflect a deep commitment to impactful storytelling and creative collaborations across theater, film, and television.
