A Moment of Silence by Mohammad Yaghoubi

Dates/Times: October 31, November 1 & 7 at 8 p.m. and November 8 at 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.
Location: Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place, Princeton

Description: A Moment of Silence is an award-winning play by celebrated Iranian playwright and director Mohammad Yaghoubi. Surreal, poetic, and unexpectedly humorous, the play offers a deeply human meditation on Iran’s turbulent modern history. Shiva, the protagonist, wakes up to find she has been asleep for three years—only to realize she has missed the Islamic Revolution. Over the next decade, she continues to slip in and out of sleep, awakening each time to a drastically altered world: the war with Iraq, the murders of dissident artists, and upheavals within her own family. Layered with absurdity and poignancy, the play also follows the increasingly perilous journey of the playwright shaping Shiva’s story, as anonymous threats begin to blur the boundary between art and reality. Directed by Nikoo Mamdoohi, an Iranian theater director based in Washington, DC; with dramaturgy by Q-mars Haeri, postdoctoral research associate in Princeton’s Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies; and Iranian designers Omid Akbari (set) and Afsaneh Aayani (costumes). Supported by the Princeton Humanities Initiative and the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES).

Admission: $20 adults, $10 students, available through the McCarter Box Office at mccarter.org.
Accessibility: The Berlind Theatre is an accessible venue with an assistive listening system. The November 7 performance will be open-captioned. Guests in need of other access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at least one week in advance at LewisCenter@princeton.edu