A Mehr Theatre Group production

Part of Under the Radar Festival, in partnership with St. Ann's Warehouse

The New York premiere is made possible with the support of Nimruz (USA)

WRITTED AND DIRECTED BY: Amir Reza Koohestani

Once a week, a husband comes to visit his captive wife who has been detained as a political prisoner in Tehran. Spied on by cameras and microphones, their conversations become increasingly distant, inhibiting their ability to share their daily lives. At his wife’s insistence, the husband agrees to train and guide a young blind woman through a Parisian footrace. As they come to learn more about each other, the unlikely couple grows close and finds a common rhythm. At the race’s end, they set upon a second challenge: can they run the Channel Tunnel to England, covering 38 kilometers in a few hours and avoiding being hit by the first train of the morning?

Alternating between the confines of prison and the racer’s unseen road, Blind Runner embraces a hypnotic rhythm scored by the musicality of the Persian language. Director Amir Reza Koohestani renders his signature stripped-down staging, augmented by video, letting the spectator’s gaze move freely from the performers’ bodies to their leviathan faces. A poetic vision gradually emerges of the human struggle, of mutual aid, of the marathon we run without freedom in sight.

Blind Runner is presented in Persian language with English supertitles.
It is appropriate for audiences ages 12 and older.