UTOPIA. Keep on Moving KULA Compagnie: Underground Birds
The play was written in the trancontinental Writers’ Room of KULA with the women artists of Simorgh Theatre, Herat, Afghanistan.
The play begins in England in 1517: it is Evil May Day, an uprising against the refugees from the continent. Thomas More speaks to the enraged citizens of London, moving them to compassion. A fragment of a play attributed to Shakespeare depicts the scene in a very contemporary way. The dramatic journey continues through times and countries, from the London of the author of Utopia to present-day Herat – and, beyond the play, from the underground back to life for the actresses of the Afghan Simorgh Theatre: One by one, those who could only appear on video at the premiere in 2022 retake the stage in exile that was denied to them at home when their lives were in danger.