Teheran
Unperforming
Azade Shamiri
Performance
Othering is a term that means to make something ‘strange.’ It describes a process in which people are constructed as the ‘other’ and differentiated from a ‘we.’ Othering is part of our daily process of perception and identity construction and triggers hierarchical and stereotypical thinking. The situation in a theater can also be an othering situation. Those who are on the stage creating a theater piece have the power of storytelling in their hands. But who is more privileged – the invisible person in the dark or the one in the spotlight? ‘Unperforming’ is a poetic experiment that explores the hierarchies imposed by the act of seeing and being seen. Azade Shahmiri plays with light, darkness and information and in doing so, playfully takes apart the codes and hierarchies involved in classic theater situations.
AZADE SHAHMIRI is a performer, director and author from Tehran. Her work has been shown at internationally renowned festivals such as the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Edinburgh International Festival, and Zürcher Theater Spektakel. In 2016, she created the video installation ‘Not To Be’ for the Theaterfestival Schwindelfrei. Aftwerwards, she collaborated with the author and filmmaker Soheil Amirsharifi on the performance of ‘Voicelessness’ and has toured internationally with it since then.
Director & Performance: Azade Shahmiri / Text: Soheil Amirsharifi.
This production is part of Theaterparcours 2
