The Silent House at the International Festival of Premieres — Bydgoszcz, Poland

September 2019

Nie/obecne — Present / Absent

The 18th International Festival of Premieres took place in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in September and October 2019 under the theme “Nie/obecne” — “Present / Absent.”

The festival brought together selected productions from Poland and abroad, focusing on subjects that appear in public life, occupy our attention for a moment, and can just as quickly disappear from it. Alongside Polish productions, the 2019 programme included four international performances.

Among them was The Silent House, presented by Saye Theatre Group from Iran.

Following the production’s presentation at Off Avignon, the director of Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz invited Saye Theatre to take part in the festival. The production was presented in two performances during the festival.

Written and directed by Mehdi Mashhour, The Silent House was performed by Benjamin Esbati and Mina Zaman. The production examines the life of a couple living in a refugee camp, using silence, repetition and physical action to reveal the tension beneath their apparently ordinary daily life. A festival publication described the performance as a deliberately minimal theatrical language, with only a few brief dialogues interrupting the extended silence between the two characters.

The invitation was also connected to the festival director’s encounter with the production in Avignon. As reported at the time, Łukasz Gajdzis, director of Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz, had seen The Silent House in Avignon and invited the production to Bydgoszcz shortly afterwards.

Credits

Written and Directed by: Mehdi Mashhour
Cast: Benjamin Esbati, Mina Zaman
Assistant Director: Fahimeh Hormozi
International Affairs Manager: Sara Rasoulinejad

Presentation

18th International Festival of Premieres
Bydgoszcz, Poland — September 2019

Two performances