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