Blind Runner

Mehr Theatre Group was founded in 1996 in Shiraz, Iran, as an acting workshop seeking a new theatrical language, distinct from traditional forms and strongly influenced by cinema. Based in Paris since 2008, and administered by French producer Pierre Reis, the company works between Tehran and exile, bringing together artists inside and outside Iran and regularly collaborating with non-Iranian designers and composers.

Led by writer-director Amir Reza Koohestani—whose academic work in Manchester focused on post-9/11 documentary theatre—with long-time collaborator and playwright Mahin Sadri, and Iranian production manager and actor Mohammad Reza Hosseinzadeh, the Mehr Theatre Group creates text-driven, documentary-inspired pieces that combine personal archives, interviews and everyday documents with a precise, minimalist staging.

Since working in German theatres, Koohestani has developed a distinctive use of live PTZ “surveillance” cameras, allowing images from the stage to be framed and recomposed in real-time. Memory, testimony and the feeling of living between two worlds—past and present, homeland and elsewhere—run through all of Mehr’s productions, even when they are based on classics.

Mehr’s internationally known works—including Dance on Glasses, Timeloss, Hearing, En Transit and Blind Runner—have toured to major festivals such as Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Holland Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Festival d’Avignon, Festival d’Automne à Paris, La Biennale di Venezia, Under The Radar, etc. and the company has received multiple awards in Iran, including Best Theatre Company (2010), as well as several international prizes for its productions, including a Special Citation at the 69th Obie Awards (2025).

Director and Playwright

Amir Reza Koohestani was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1978. At a young age, he began publishing short stories in local newspapers and working in film. After a brief experience as a performer, he devoted his time to writing his first plays—And the Day Never Came (1999) and The Murmuring Tales (2000)—for the Mehr Theatre Group. Koohestani's third play, Dance on Glasses (2001), gained him international notoriety and the support of several European theatrical artistic directors and festivals.

Further work includes the plays Recent Experiences (from the original text by Canadian writers Nadia Ross and Jacob Wren, 2003); Amid the Clouds (2005); Dry Blood & Fresh Vegetables (2007); Quartet: A Journey North (2008); Where Were You on January 8th? (2009); Ivanov (2011); and The Fourth Wall (from the original play England by Tim Crouch, 2012), which was presented one hundred times in an art gallery in Tehran.

Over the past fifteen years, Koohestani wrote and directed the plays Timeloss (2013), Hearing (2015) and Summerless (2018), which was presented as the “Time Trilogy” at the Festival TNB, in Rennes, France in November 2018.

Koohestani’s plays are distinguished by their poetic narratives, subtle criticism, and exploration of personal and political themes. Through his creations, he continues to inspire and challenge audiences around the world, combining the intimate and the universal and offering a unique perspective on the intersection of Iranian and contemporary global theatre.

Performer

Ainaz Azarhoush was born in Ramsar, Iran, in 1989. She graduated from Azad University in Tehran with a degree in Graphic Design. While enrolled in an advanced drama course at the Karnameh Institute of Dramatic Art, she was cast in the 2012 film Paternal House, directed by Iranian filmmaker Kianoush Ayari. She followed this up with a role in Fish and Cat, a 2013 film directed by Shahram Mokri, which won the Innovative Content Award at the Venice International Film Festival.

In 2016, she was selected to act in Amir Reza Koohestani’s play Hearing, which toured to the festival d’Avignon, the Schaubühne in Berlin, the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, as well as to other countries.

In 2023, she performed again under the direction of Amir Reza Koohestani for Blind Runner.

Performer

Mohammad Reza Hosseinzadeh Azad was born in 1978, in Tehran, Iran. He is a theatre actor and a producer and manager for theatre companies in Iran, such as Amir Reza Koohestani’s Mehr Theatre Group, with whom he has collaborated with since 2005.

In 2023, he performed in Blind Runner, his first time under the direction of Amir Reza Koohestani.