Amir Reza Koohestani

Amir Reza Koohestani (Persian:امیررضا کوهستانی; born on June 8, 1978) is an Iranian theatre maker who was born in Shiraz, Iran.

Koohestani gained his international esteem by directing the play ''Dance on glasses.

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Koohestani's early fascination for literature resulted in the publication of two short stories in local news papers by the age of 16.

Following his passion for cinema, he took courses in cinematography.

Koohestani studied Cinema at the Tehran University.

Later on, he continued his studies at the Manchester University on Theatre Studies.

And the Day Never Came (1999) and The Murmuring Tales (2000) were the first plays that he wrote for Mehr Theatre Group.

The former, And the Day Never Came, was never performed, not having the permission from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

In 2001, he founded Mehr Theatre Group in Tehran.

In 2001, he created Dance on the glasses, which received a lot of attention from European theatrical festivals.

Dance on the glasses toured for four years and was performed widely around the world.

The play Where Were You On January 8th? was the first play he created after his return to Iran in 2009.

Where were you on January 8th? was created in Iran in 2009.

It was performed thirty times in an official theatre in Tehran.

Military service kept Koohestani from attending the shows in Brussels, Créteil (near Paris) and Paris in Spring 2010 and prohibited him to leave Iran between October 2010 and April 2012.

The influence of the political situation and female supremacy in Iran are important themes of ''Where were you on January 8th?

'' When talking about political situations, he does not make a direct reference to the political situation in Iran.

His work alludes in metaphorical ways to the political situation.

By remaining discreet and cautious in his artistic expressions, he doesn't get into too much trouble with Iranian regime.

Timeloss can be described as an Iranian version of Beckett's "Waiting for Godot".

Similar to his previous work, Dance on glasses, the use of a film screen on stage can be seen.

In 2012, the movie Modest Reception won the Neptac Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The script was the product of a collaboration between Koohestani and Mani Haghighi.

Throughout the years 2014 and 2015, Koohestani wrote the script of Hearing.

It was performed for the first time at the city hall of Tehran in July 2015.

However, The Murmuring Tales was received with praise during 18th International Fadjr Theatre Festival.

In September 2018, Koohestani created a short play in French for the opening of La Comédie de Genève.

Koohestani's theatrical work is often labeled as "documentary theatre" or “theatralised documentary film”.

The scripts are often based on true stories.

He also uses cameras and projection screens on stage to emphasise the actual occurrence of the events as well as illustrating different versions of them.

This style of theatre making creates a distance between the performers and the audience.

Therefore, the spectators do not always appreciate it.

However, this method reminds the audience of different accounts of reality and manifests Koohestani's search for a more concrete one.

His working method as a theatre director is mainly centred around the text itself.

Changes to the texts are often made during the rehearsals as the text becomes alive.

During the first rehearsal phase, actors do not receive any feedback from Koohestani.

He finds repetition and slow processes the suitable way to train the actors.

Set designs in Koohestani’s works are mostly minimalistic..

His works, following the tradition of Kiarostami, who was a great influence for the writing of Hearing, are about broad universal themes and not direct political statements.