Quartet: A Journey North
Photo by Shokoofeh Hashemian

Recently showcased at the Barbican Centre in London as part of their Iran: New Voices series, as well as across Europe in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Hanover and Moscow, Quartet: A Journey North is a work of documentary theatre that uses an innovative multimedia format to ask probing questions about the nature of crime. The Segal Center welcomes Vali Mahlouji, associate producer of the Barbican’s Iran: New Voices series and translator of the plays, who will direct readings of excerpts from Quartet: A Journey North and Dance on Glasses, and show slides and video clips from Amid the Clouds . With Amir Koohestani (via SKYPE), and actors Katharina Stenbeck, Gregory Henits, and Jorge Alberto Rubio.

Vali Mahlouji, born in Tehran, is a London-based curator, writer and designer. He has been a student of Iranian Archaeology and Philology before training in Fine Arts and Theatre Design. He was recently curator and associate producer of the first London contemporary Iranian theatre and video arts season Iran: New Voices (Barbican Centre). As a designer, his recent theatre and film credits range from Maeterlinck’s The Blind to Dvorak’s Rusalka for the ICA, Riverside Studios, Arcola Theatre and Grange Park Opera, as well as short films for the BBC and UK Film Council. His recent publications include Memories, Dreams and Obsessions: Sketching a Portrait of Y.Z. Kami (National Museum of Contemporary Arts, Athens), The Endurance of a Living Art (London Middle East Institute), Fantasies of the Imagination and Symbols of Transformation (Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris) and as a co-contributor on Arts & Education at The Guardian. Vali has also worked extensively as a translator in collaboration with the Barbican Centre, National Film Theatre (UK), British Film Institute, Victoria & Albert Museum, BBC and Channel 4. His playscript translations include Koohestani’s Amid the Clouds (Royal Court Theatre), Quartet: A Journey North (Barbican Centre), Dance on Glasses, and Samini’s Eleventh Minute (BBC). [email protected]; www.valimahlouji.com

Amir Reza Koohestani is a playwright and short story writer. His career in theatre began in 1996 as a performer with the Mehr Theatre Group. Koohestani wrote his first play …And the Day Never Came in 1999. In the following year, he wrote and directed The Murmuring Tales, which was the candidate for five awards in the fields of directing, playwriting, male and female cast and best play at the famous 18th International Fadjr Theatre Festival (Iran). He has received three awards, including Second Best Play of the Year 2000 in Iran. His third play, Dance on Glasses, was one of the most controversial and successful plays in Iran in recent years, and it has been presented internationally by the Theater der Welt in Bonn (Germany, 2002), the Chekhov International Theatre Olympiad (Moscow, May 2003), and in Brussels, Dublin, Paris, Montreal, Rio, Lisbon, Modena and more than twenty venues and festival around the world. Koohestani’s third production was the translation, adaptation, and direction of the Canadian play Recent Experiences that was first performed in September 2003 in Tehran, and then at the Maison des arts de Créteil, Warsaw and at the Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris as part of the Festival d’Automne. Amid The Clouds was Koohestani’s first co-production with the European festivals Kunsten Festival des Arts and Weiner Festwochen, and was successfully performed in more than twenty different cities such as London (Royal Court Theatre), Zurich (Theater Spectakel), Amsterdam (Holland Festival) Goteborg (Goteborg International Theatre & Dance Festival) and Warsaw. Single Room, which premièred in Cologne in November 2006, is a dark comedy based on Antigone. Dry Blood and Fresh Vegetables, created in November 2007 for the Meeting Points 5, is scheduled to be presented by several festivals in Europe. His latest work, Quartet, is a documentary performance based on the story of two Iranian murderers in different classes of Iranian society. It premièred this past September and will have a European tour next spring. Koohestani was Co-Director of the International Workshop in the last Theater der Welt Festival (image.construction. site II) and in June 2003 he participated as young artist in the international debate, The Rights and Roles of Young People as Artsmakers, at the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). He currently lives in Manchester where he is finishing his academic education in Theatre.

6:30 p.m., Monday, Nov 23, 2009
Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free!