Esplanade Presents | The Studios Blind Runner by Amir Reza Koohestani & Mehr Theatre Group (Iran)

“mesmerising…stunningly performed…deeply moving” – The Guardian​ Obie Awards 2025 – Special Citation Biennale Teatro Venice 2024 Once a week, a husband comes to visit his wife, a political prisoner. Spied on by cameras and under constant surveillance, their conversations become increasingly fraught and distant, leading to incomprehension and a crippling inability to put into words the harshness of daily life. At his wife's insistence, the husband agrees to guide a young blind woman through a race in Paris. They have to find a common rhythm; over the course of their training sessions, both get to know each other. Once the competition ends, another race emerges. He now has to help her get to England by crossing the Channel Tunnel, covering 38 kilometers in just a few hours so as to avoid being hit by the first train in the morning. Between the confines of the prison and the sense of freedom afforded by the race, emerges a poetic vision of the struggle, of mutual aid, and of the freedom towards which we rush headlong into. A 2023 co-production with several key international festivals—Kunstenfestivaldearts (Brussels), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Noorderzon Festival of Performing Arts & Society (Netherlands), Berliner Festspiele, and Under the Radar Festival (New York)—Blind Runner deftly and gracefully interweaves the destinies of three individuals, each grappling with oppression in their own ways. Iran’s Amir Reza Koohestani and Mehr Theatre Group return to Singapore for the first time since 2014, where their presentation of Amid The Clouds at Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) was praised by The Business Times for being an “austere and restrained piece … steeped in poignancy and meaning.” True to his stripped-down approach for the stage, Iranian director Amir Reza Koohestani now deploys video to multiply the possibilities of the narrative, encouraging the spectator's gaze to roam freely from the performers' bodies to their filmed faces. In so doing, he has once again created an undoubtedly striking and moving show. Key Production Credits Text and direction: Amir Reza Koohestani Dramaturgy: Samaneh Ahmadian Director’s assistant: Dariush Faezi Lights and scenography: Éric Soyer Video: Yasi Moradi, Benjamin Kreig Music: Philip Hohenwarter, Matthias Peyker Costume design: Negar Nobakht Foghani Performers: Ainaz Azarhoush, Mohmammad Reza Hosseinzadeh English translation and surtitle adaptation: Massoumeh Lahidji Surtitles operator: Negar Nobakht Foghani Production, administration, and promotion: Pierre Reis Blind Runner is supported by The Institut Français and The Ministry of Culture – DRAC Île-de-France.