AEF2023: Blind Runner

It’s that time of the year again, when Athenians start planning their summer holidays around the programme of the Athens Epidaurus Festival. The leading performing arts festival in Greece, and one of the oldest in Europe, returns between June 1st and August 26th for its 68th edition with a rich programme of events. As always, the main venues are the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the industrial complex of Pireos 260 and the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus. Click here for our festival picks or head over to the official website for the full programme.

An Iranian couple trains for months in order to execute a daring escape plan from Iran to England. The challenge is to run the 27 kilometres of the Channel Tunnel in the five-hour window during which no trains move on the tracks. In a terrible turn of events, the wife is arrested before their escape. As promised, every night they run next to each other, separated by the prison wall. Playwright and director Amir Reza Koohestani wrote Blind Runner to tackle the pressing issues of Iranian society and the refugee crisis. Since his 2012 award for the film Modest Reception at the Berlin International Film Festival, Koohestani has managed to master a deeply engaging poetic visual language, which crowds will get to witness at this production of Paris’ Mehr Theatre Group.