Shieveh Theater Company

Venue: HAU2

What if the tragedies of antiquity live on today? Three people fall into destinies between war, flight and loss. The Shieveh Theater Company from Tehran combines real stories with the big questions of guilt, power and responsibility.

The Shieveh Theater Company has existed for over 25 years and can be seen with its productions at festivals all over the world. The group really touched the HAU audience with their work “The Child” back in 2024.

Even “The Shadows” (“Die Schatten”), which premiered at Theater der Welt in July 2026, does not theoretically negotiate questions of guilt, law and personal responsibility. These are existential and political. Created from a sensitive and researching examination of the conditions of our contemporary world, the work is based on three real and documented stories whose emotional and existential processes show a vivid proximity to the timeless figures of Iocaste (Oedipus), Antigone and Medea. In doing so, she gives these mythological figures new life and lets their voices and fates echo in the crises, contradictions and uncertainties of our time. How do narratives of fate, loss, resistance, and despair shape human experience over centuries?

The process of creating “The Shadows” has been profoundly shaped, particularly in recent months, by the life experiences of the artistic team in Iran — months characterized by increasing instability, emotional intensity and a growing sense of fragility in everyday life. In this busy and turbulent time, the team felt more and more clearly the heavy weight of the shadows that weighed on their lives and existence. This insight did not remain abstract, but permeated the creative process and changed its rhythm, pitch and inner urgency.

In this way, the work has changed into a sensitive resonance of the present, into an artistic space in which experience, memory and perception are intertwined, in which vulnerability becomes language and in which the creative tries to give shape to what often remains on the edge of what can be said.

Text and direction: Afsaneh Mahian/Director advice, stage, costume and lighting design: Manouchehr Shoja/Assistant director, translation and direction international projects: Gilnaz Yousefian/Cast: Nastaran Davari, Shakiba Hosseini, Shaghayegh Mohajer

There are two marked parking spaces in front of the house. Barrier-free sanitary facilities available. There are four relaxed seats available in the front row of HAU2.