Maryam Khalili

Maryam Khalili, born 2001 in Iran, is a writer and director working at the intersection of documentary theatre and public space. She studied Dramatic Literature at the University of Tehran and has been active in theatre since 2016 as a director, writer and performer. In 2021, she received the Best Performance Award at the 40th Fajr Theater Festival for her innovative spatial approach.

Since the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, Khalili has worked independently and underground, refusing to participate in censored platforms. Her recent practice focuses on documentary forms that explore social resistance and the politics of presence and absence.

In 2025, she directed and researched Date of Performance, a lecture-performance on plays staged inside Iranian prisons. The work was first presented in a volleyball hall in Tehran and later performed at Ballhaus Ost in Berlin. In the same year, she was accepted into the Performing Exiles Summer School. However, due to the outbreak of war and the closure of borders, she was unable to travel to Berlin and could not participate in the programme on site. During this period, she wrote daily war diaries, which were later performed as part of the final presentation at the Berliner Festspiele.
Khalili’s work moves beyond conventional stages, treating the city as a living dramaturgical field and transforming public space into sites of encounter, collective memory and urgent dialogue.