Among the most influential contemporary Iranian directors and playwrights, Amir Reza Koohestani, in “Blind Runner,” presented at Biennale Teatro, uses video as a tool to multiply the possibilities of storytelling, from the bodies on stage to the filmed faces.
Born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1978, Amir Reza Koohestani is one of the most influential Iranian playwrights and directors. He studied in Manchester before going back to Tehran, where his work spearheaded a rebirth trend in Iranian theatre. Koohestani works mainly with the Mehr Theatre Group. One of their most notable works is The Murmuring Tales of 2000. Aged 23, he wrote and staged Dance on Glasses, which propelled him to international fame. His poetic style explores the daily lives of characters imprisoned in the confusion of their own reality, observing them through the lens of critical symbolism. After the pandemic, the Iranian director released Blind Runner, which will be staged at Biennale on June 20 and 21. Inspired by, and dedicated to, Niloofar Hamedi, the first person to denounce the brutality of Mahsa Amini’s murder, Blind Runner blends the private and the political in a sixty-minute story running in video and on stage.
