BLIND OWL

BLIND OWL The End of the Phallocentric Era

 

"Secretly, I long to be born anew into a tranquil world of clarity and light."

 

— Sadegh Hedayat

 

 

**BLIND OWL ↔ BLINDE EULE** is a compelling dance theatre work that explores the complexity, fragility, and constant transformation of identity. Inspired by the novel *The Blind Owl* by the Iranian author Sadegh Hedayat, the performance interweaves dance, music, and video projections into an immersive stage world—sensuous, unsettling, and deeply political.

 

At its core is an unnamed narrator whose sense of self fractures into multiple figures. A young woman and an old man emerge as reflections of his inner fragmentation. As dreams, memories, and hallucinations intertwine, the boundaries between reality and imagination dissolve. The female figure becomes a projection screen for male desires, fears, and fantasies of power.

 

**BLIND OWL** invites the audience to experience identity as a dynamic and ever-evolving process, shaped by migration, gender, power structures, and social control. At a time when patriarchal systems seek to impose fixed roles and define identities, the work reveals how external forces shape our inner worlds and how fragile our self-images remain. Through a feminist perspective, the performance challenges patriarchal ways of seeing and phallocentric narrative structures, inviting audiences to radically rethink perception and the self—beyond prescribed roles and singular notions of reality.

Performances

 

2 July 2026 · 8:00 pm

BLIND OWL

Theater der Keller

(Cologne Premiere)

 

3 July 2026 · 8:00 pm

Theater der Keller

 

Information

3D glasses will be provided by the theatre on site.

Duration: 60 minutes, no intermission.

 

Artistic Direction / Choreography / Music Arrangement

Bibiana Jiménez

 

Dramaturgical Consultant

Ulrike Janssen

 

Set and Costume Design

Kateryna Markush

 

Video

Kamalanetra Hung

 

Lighting Design & Technical Direction

Jan Wiesbrock

 

Production Manager

Asta Nechajute

 

Performers

 

Daniela Riebesam

Tuong Phuong

Kenji Shinohe

Voice

Matthias Weiland

 

Supported by

The Cultural Office of the City of Cologne

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XXTanzTheater

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BLINDE EULE

The End of the Phallocentric Era

BLINDE EULE