On the Wings of the Night’s Crew
An experimental re-reading of Freud’s diaries through movement, restriction, and live improvisation

In On the Wings of the Night’s Crew, Virgule embarked on a daring exploration of Sigmund Freud’s diaries—unraveling the inner workings of desire, repression, and the subconscious not through speech, but through embodied movement. The production fused Freud’s psychoanalytic text with the visceral language of contact improvisation, but within the restrictive context of Iran, where bodily touch on stage is heavily policed, a bold reimagining was necessary.

Instead of abandoning contact, we transformed it. The dancers wore orthopedic caskets—casts typically used for broken limbs—on their arms, allowing their bodies to move and interact through mediated touch. These sculptural constraints became both metaphor and method: hands that could not touch directly, but reached through absence. This restriction became fertile ground for visual poetry, evoking layers of meaning about intimacy, fracture, memory, and healing.

The performance unfolded as a living, breathing score. Writer Tala Moeatazedi composed live, seated at the edge of the stage, observing and responding in real time—her words projected or whispered into the space like unconscious thoughts surfacing. Simultaneously, a live band echoed and propelled the dancers’ impulses. The performers—Sara Reyhani and Behrouz Panahandes—engaged in a kinetic dialogue with the evolving text and soundscape. It was neither fully choreographed nor entirely improvised: an in-between space where discipline and instinct met.

On the Wings of the Night’s Crew introduced a unique form of performative writing and embodied research to the festival circuit. It blurred the lines between rehearsal and performance, between constraint and freedom—offering a layered, haunting reflection on what it means to touch when touch is forbidden.

Concept, Direction & Set Design: Arvand Dashtaray
Text: Tala Moeatazedi
Play: Mohammad Charmshir
Choreography & Performance: Sara Reyhani
Performer: Behrouz Panahandes