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Four people have been killed. Four witnesses have been summoned and sit down in the middle of a big hall. Forced to sit with their back to each other, they are denied eye contact. The dictates of this physical arrangement are used by the performance for a very original dramaturgy: only for the audience, which is split up into four groups, the individual statements detailing the progression of each crime are condensed into an overall narrative, while the speakers are increasingly exposed to isolation. Two of them are murderers.

The latest play by Iranian writer and director Amir Reza Koohestani resembles a cool, detached police investigation and makes use of actual cases that caused a stir in Iran. Images by young filmmaker Mahin Sadri add the dimension of an emotional quest to this performance. Both are combined in a journey to an inaccessible country: the human psyche. This triggers the paradox that only the fact of speaking about death becomes an equally liberating and nightmarish coping strategy for both perpetrators and surviving family members. For the oppressiveness of cramped cohabitation, the absence of freedom, the disregard for individual needs or the lack of respect for others can only be named but not eliminated through speech.

At the 2005 edition of Wiener Festwochen, Amir Reza Koohestani presented his plays Dance on Glasses and Amid the Clouds.

Discussion with the audience:
Free admission, 23 May, following the performance (approx. 9.30 p.m.), brut at Künstlerhaus 

Breakfast Talks for the Audience, Colleagues and Press
6 May to 10 June
Every Tuesday and Saturday (including public holidays)
11 am – approx. 12.30 am
Café Prückel, Stubenring 24, Vienna 1
Free admission
With: Performing Arts Director Stefanie Carp