The Child

Three women. A newborn baby. A heavily guarded border. In THE CHILD, Iran’s Shieveh Theater Company tells a strikingly topical story about flight, responsibility and humanity in a world that is increasingly closing itself off to people seeking protection. A Yazidi woman from Iraq, an Afghan woman and a Libyan woman – each with her own story of flight – are detained and interrogated by border authorities. With them is a newborn baby. When the officials try to determine who the mother is, the unexpected happens: none of the women claims the child as her own. Yet this decision is an act of radical care – made in the hope of giving the baby a life in safety, even if the women themselves face deportation. A moving chamber play about solidarity, identity and the moral limits of state power.

Directed by the multi-award-winning Afsaneh Mahian and based on a text by playwright Naghmeh Samini, THE CHILD combines documentary precision with poetic intensity. Without pathos, the production focuses on the individual fates behind political debates about migration and asylum. Numbers and headlines give way to personal experiences, losses and hopes.

The Shieveh Theater Company from Tehran is one of Iran’s most important independent ensembles. Its work consistently engages with social realities and, in particular, women’s lived experiences, and is regularly presented at international festivals and venues. THE CHILD is a powerful plea for compassion and dignity – and a reminder that behind every case file is a human life.