The Door at Toronto Fringe Festival Toronto, Canada — 2017

In July 2017, The Door was presented at the Toronto Fringe Festival in Canada.

Presented by Iran Saye Theatre, the production continued its international journey after performances in Germany, the United States and Sweden.

The Door, written and directed by Mehdi Mashhour, centres on two women facing the dilemma of leaving their homeland. Immigration is approached through their uncertainty, their relationship to home and the possibility of building a life elsewhere.

The performance combines movement, speech, music and sound, creating a fragmented theatrical language in which the characters’ experiences are revealed through physical actions as much as through words.

The Toronto presentation brought the production into the context of one of Canada’s major fringe theatre events. It was presented at The Theatre Centre as part of the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival.

The production had previously been presented at FringeNYC, where it was described as the first Iranian play to participate in the festival.

For Iran Saye Theatre, Toronto became another step in the continuing international presentation of The Door, connecting the production’s concerns about migration and displacement with a new audience and cultural context.