Lecture with film examples and audience debate with Narges Hashempour and Keyvan Sarreshteh

Narges Hashempour and Keyvan Sarreshteh invite for a lecture with film examples and audience debate about their work and artistic motives in current Iranian theatre.

A big part of contemporary Iranian theatre has found its aesthetics in the concept of absence. Working in a limiting environment, under financial, political and technological constraints, artists have developed a practice that invites the audience to become active participants of the art work by filling up the blanks: unsaid words, restricted sets and imperfections become part of the artists’ inventory to create new meaning.

By the artists’ skills in using metaphors, references and social cues and infusing these markers into their stories and narratives, simple personal stories gain social, communal associations.

Narges Hashempour, born in Tehran in 1967, is an internationally renowned actress, director, author, curator and dramaturg, as well as holding a doctorate in theatre studies, who has realized countless theatre projects and participated in various festivals since 1991. She was a guest director in Germany at the Iran Festival 2004 at Haus der Kulturen der Welt and worked as an actress at the Theater an der Ruhr, was a fellow of the special research project Interweaving Performing Cultures at the Freie Universität Berlin and a fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude. She was awarded multiple times, amongst others as an actress and as a director at the International Festival Fajir as well as with the Gordana Kosanovic Acting Award.

Keyvan Sarreshteh, born in Tehran in 1987, is an Iranian performer, playwright and director whose works deal mainly with memories, personal histories and power relations. His latest play, Timescape, premiered at the 2023 Vienna Festival.