REMOTE THEATER PROJECT is pleased to announce the world premiere of their commission of Nushin Arbabzadah’s THE UNRAVELING, directed by Roya Sadat. THE UNRAVELING will play a limited engagement at ART NY’s Gural Theatre (502 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019). Performances begin Thursday, January 7 and continue through Sunday, January 24. Opening Night is Monday, January 11 (7 p.m.). \u200b Tickets are $25-65 and available at https://buytickets.at/remotetheaterproject.
Set in a small town in southern Afghanistan in the last two weeks before the US troops’ withdrawal, The Unraveling is a story of friendship, love, and betrayal against the backdrop of war. At the heart of the story is Roya, a young Afghan woman whose hope of escaping to America with her secret lover, an interpreter for the US army, unravels her whole life.
The play draws on firsthand accounts of young women whose lives were abruptly upended in August 2021, when the US withdrew from the country. The play’s director, Roya Sadat, a world-renowned Afghan filmmaker, was directing an opera in Seattle when Kabul fell to the Taliban. She and her family have received asylum in the US since. Nushin Arbabzadah left Afghanistan at 12. A prominent journalist and scholar, she writes plays that present brave characters in upside-down worlds.
“Putting these two artists together, from different sides of the Afghan diaspora, has been a deeply rewarding experience,” says RTP Artistic Director Alexandra Aron, \u200b “both strong women; they push each other, question each other’s suppositions, which enriches the work and deepens the characters”. \u200b
The production stars Noor Hamdi (u/s The Skin of Our Teeth) as Karim, Shahzeb Hussain (Nat Tour: The Kite Runner) as Abdul, Haythem Noor* (Nat Tour: The Kite Runner) as Ebrahim, Leda Rasooli* (Capital Stage: English) as Roya, Hamid Whab as Yama, \u200b and the actor playing Jack will be announced subsequently.
Alexandra Aron is the Producer, in association with XYZ Theatricals. The production features scenic design by Izmir Ichbal, costume design by Dina el Aziz, and lighting design by Tyler Micolau. Sinan Zifran is the sound designer and Hera Jung is the production stage manager. Publicity by Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR.
BIOGRAPHIES
NUSHIN ARBABZADAH (Playwright) was born in Afghanistan and educated in Kabul during the Soviet occupation. As a teenager, she fled state persecution and the war in Afghanistan with her family, becoming a refugee in Germany. Following her deep love of culture, she later earned a first-class master’s degree in Germanic and Romance literature and linguistics from Hamburg University. She subsequently studied Middle Eastern history at Cambridge University as a William H. Gates Scholar. Nushin’s first full-length play, Afghan Girls Don’t Cry, was produced as part of Kali Theater’s Ware Play festival in London in 2018. She staged her short comedy, Dust Allergy, at the Wexner Center for Arts in Ohio in 2019. Nusin’s first children’s play, Spinning, was published in Youth Plays in 2019.
ROYA SADAT (Director) is a visionary filmmaker who has transformed Afghan cinema and earned global recognition. The first female director to emerge after the Taliban’s fall, she broke barriers in a male-dominated industry. Praised by outlets from Afghanistan to Variety — which called her a “trail-blazing director” — her films and series challenge oppressive ideologies and extremist regimes as part of the global movement for human rights and justice. Sadat’s works have won more than 50 international awards; A Letter to the President (2017) was Afghanistan’s official entry for Best Foreign-Language Film at the 2018 Oscars and won the One Future Prize at the Munich Film Festival; Sima’s Song (2024), after premiering in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival, went on to receive numerous prestigious accolades. Her rare breadth of experience across cinema, performance, and opera has established her as a truly interdisciplinary artist, whose work moves boldly across artistic forms and expands the boundaries between film, live performance, and contemporary art. Critics have praised her bold, nuanced, courageous portrayal of Afghan politics and gender. Foreign Policy named her one of the world’s top 10 “re-thinkers” in 2017, and she received the Kim Dae-Jung Nobel Peace Film Award in 2021. Roya Sadat is also the co-founder of Roya Film House and the Herat International Women Film Festival
REMOTE THEATER PROJECT (RTP) was founded by director and producer Alexandra Aron to develop work with international and immigrant artists whose voices are not often heard in the United States. RTP productions foster human-to-human exchanges and culture-to-culture dialogue, believing that work exploring relationships across cultures can deepen understanding and empathy, even between communities in political conflict.
RTP’s groundbreaking production Grey Rock, by Amir Nizar Zuabi, opened at La MaMa in 2019 and subsequently toured theaters across the United States and Australia. LINES, developed with actors John Rwothomack and Fidaa Zidan and director Junaid Sarriddean, opened in Sheffield, UK, toured England, and was presented in NY in 2024. In 2026, RTP co-produced The Last Play in Gaza at Teater Tribunalen in Stockholm, Sweden. Upcoming productions include The Last Day of Spring, written and performed by Fidaa Zidan, at La MaMa in April 2027.
RTP also develops community-focused work. After partnering with Little Amal (The Walk Productions/ St Ann's Warehouse) to create outdoor productions in different NYC neighborhoods in 2022, RTP continued the work in Chinatown with a range of community partners. Since 2023, RTP has created the Thank You for Listening, a project centered on workshops with different groups living in Chinatown. The workshops lead to an annual original play by Obie Award-winning playwright Carmen Rivera. Performed by an international company of actors, the plays are presented free of charge in public spaces, parks, and gardens across the Lower East Side and Chinatown.
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