Under the Shadow

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About the Show

1980s Tehran-set drama where wartime bombings unleash an ancient malevolence.

Set in Tehran during the mid‑1980s Iran‑Iraq War, the play follows Shideh, left with her young daughter when her husband is drafted, as nightly missile strikes and rumours of a djinn converge in their apartment block.

Playwright Carmen Nasr adapts Babak Anvari’s BAFTA‑winning 2016 film, with Nadia Latif directing and Leila Farzad leading the cast. The production combines wartime social realism with Persian folklore to probe life under bombardment, the choice to flee or stay, and the boundary between reason and dread.

Critic Reviews (8)

"Farzad is fiercely compelling as a should-be modern woman with a penchant for Jane Fonda workouts, who can only be herself behind closed curtains."
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"It works as an effective chiller with some moments of genuine startlement. It also blunts the subtlety of the source material. This is heresy for a theatre devotee but… maybe just watch the film instead."
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"Its timelessness gives it power, a dark universal parable about living under two shadows: war, and a totalitarian state."
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"Nadia Latif's stylish, well-acted production is more nuanced – within the constraints of the genre. The happenings embody forces beyond her control… This stage version honours it, but also escapes its shadow."
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"It can’t sustain the delicate balance it has created – but it is undoubtedly both original and enjoyable."
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"This is a pacy, intense, and refreshingly unusual kind of thriller – one that reminds us that the scariest things in life aren't the ones that go bump in the night."
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"Weirdly lightweight"
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"Carmen Nasr's taut adaptation could scarcely be timelier. When Shideh and her neighbours huddle together in their bomb shelter, cursing Europe and the US for abandoning them, this could be a livestream from 2026."
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