The Child
by Naghmeh Samini

VOICES OF IRAN

Politically charged and profoundly human in equal measure, The Child casts a piercing light on the unseen cost of displacement and the denial of the most fundamental right of all: the right to safety. On a shore in Western Europe, three women are arrested and brought before the authorities, facing interrogation and deportation. They come from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, each a survivor of abuse. What binds them is not only the trauma they carry and the arduous journey that brought them to Europe, but also a newborn baby in their care.

One by one, they are questioned by a migration official. One by one, their applications for entry are denied. But what of the infant? Each woman denies being the mother, not out of indifference, but out of a desperate and fiercely protective love. No one claims the child, hoping that even if they themselves are deported, the baby might remain on European soil. The resolve to shield the infant from an uncertain – even fatal – future becomes their sole shared language. The confrontations with the official escalate to a breaking point, and when he demands a DNA test, the interpreter intervenes – an unforeseen ex machina presence.

Written by the Iranian playwright Naghmeh Samini as a sonorous plea for peace and equality, the play is directed by Tehran-born Afsaneh Mahian, an artist unwavering in her commitment to social realities and women’s lived experiences. Founder of Shieveh Theatre Company, Mahian has presented her work internationally to wide acclaim. Through narratives drawn from the lives of women in the Middle East and North Africa, she emerges as a vital voice articulating the broader Middle Eastern and Arab experience, transposing onto the stage not transient images of current affairs, but the intimate truth of those struggling to endure war, poverty, borders, and institutional callousness.

The Child offers no easy consolations. Instead, it confronts us with an urgent question: which bodies are considered worthy of protection, and which are deemed unwelcome? Amid interrogations, silences, and acts of translation, the performance becomes a stark reminder that behind every “file” lies a living, breathing human being, and that humanity cannot be authenticated by documents. Presented in Persian with surtitles, the production preserves the immediacy and resonance of its original voice. Eschewing spectacle, it transforms the hall into a shared locus of testimony, where our gaze is tested, and our moral position quietly laid bare. All three women are portrayed by the internationally acclaimed and award-winning Fatemeh Motamed Arya, in a riveting performance that unfolds upon a narrow strip of sand.