SECHZEHN WÖRTER is Dariusch Yazdkhasti’s stage adaptation of Nava Ebrahimi’s novel. Mona, a journalist in Germany, travels to Iran after her grandmother dies. Sixteen Persian words, each untranslatable, title the chapters of that journey.

Julia Hattstein’s stage works with transparent, movable thread curtains that define the rooms and take the projections. I designed the video for those surfaces. Holiday slides, chat messages and video fragments run across several layers at once, so the image occupies the depth of the stage instead of sitting behind the actors.

The production premiered on 23 May 2025 at TiF, Theater im Fridericianum, and was reviewed in Theater der Zeit.

• Direction: Dariusch Yazdkhasti

• Stage and costumes: Julia Hattstein

• Video: Navid Razavi

• With: Katharina Brehl, Emma Bahlmann, Nicolas Sidiropulos

• Dramaturgy: Alexander Olbrich

• Light: Stefanie Dühr

• Stage design assistance: Vincent Stephan Großer