TEHRAN BANOU: Lady Tehran, by Ayat Najafi

Ballhaus Ost in Berlin
www.ballhausost.de/spip.php?article246

OPENING NIGHT SEPTEMBER 11th
ADDITIONAL SHOWS SEPTEMBER 12th / 13th / 16th / 17th / 18th
AND OCTOBER 21st / 22nd / 23rd

Formerly a star of the Persian movies and a famous dancer in the bars of Tehran, she now lives on the street and clings to her memories. She longs to perform her most famous show women with beard and men in skirts for only one more time, but the city in is turmoil, the Tehranis are hoping for a new era. The imagination of "Lady Tehran" lets images of possible pasts and identities flicker randomly and eventually wander off in the modern city of today.

Iranian director AYAT NAJAFI (Football under Cover) and his international cast set out on the trail of the farsi movie star's scattered stories. In the process, they immerse themselves into the underground, a labyrinth of cellars and alleyways, above which the city of Tehran arises. From the beginning a part of society, the covert underground city maintained its attractiveness even during Tehran's darkest centuries of deprivation, dependency and censorship under foreign rule.

TEHRAN BANOU ties in with the Iranian tradition of women's comedy and develops a theatrical portrait of Lady Tehran through different periods of time.

The cast explores possibilities of crossing the lines of traditional role models, all actors perform in male as well as female roles. Against the background of rigid gender segregation in Iran society, the question arises, how established or penetrable gender role models are in our own everyday life.

With SANAM AFRASHTEH, LOUISE COLBERT, EVA LÖBAU, KATHARINA MEVES, INGO REULECKE, TATIANA SAPHIR, CHRISTIAN SCHWAAN

Director AYAT NAJAFI
Dramaturgy SUSANNE VINCENZ
Stage ISABEL ROBSON
Costumes SABINA MONCYS
Musik SANTIAGO BLAUM, LOUISE COLBERT, MOHAMMED REZA MORTAZAVI
Choreography INGO REULECKE
Assistant director LENA MODY
Assistant production design JANNA SCHAAR
Production ANNETT HARDEGEN

A AYAT NAJAFI PRODUCTION IN COOPERATION WITH BALLHAUS OST AND BALLHAUS NAUNYNSTRASSE

PROMOTED BY HAUPTSTADTKULTURFONDS
KINDLY SUPPORTED BY EXZELLENCLUSTER KULTURELLE GRUNDLAGEN VON INTEGRATION UNIVERSITÄT KONSTANZ