Tehran 2009: the artist A. takes part in the protest movement against the Ayatollah regime. When he’s targeted by security forces, he’s forced to flee Iran, bringing memories of his childhood and a youth full of violence along with him. In Austria, the artist becomes a ‘refugee’, treated with contempt—sometimes secretly, sometimes openly. He finds himself on an asylum odyssey: shelters, hunger, and racism define his everyday life. In Vienna, he meets Sarah, who wants to help and, in the process, falls hopelessly in love with him. What happens when help becomes an imposition? In his debut novel Das Ende ist nah (The End Is Near, 2023), Amir Gudarzi tells a powerful story of humiliation and the will to persevere, of love and contradiction.

Amir Gudarzi, born in Tehran, has lived in Vienna since 2009 and has received many awards for his work, including the Hermann-Hesse-Förderpreis. Das Ende ist nah will be staged by director Sara Ostertag, known for her physically and visually rich theatrical language, with live music accompaniment by the sound poet Paul Plut. 

Das Ende ist nah is a co-production with the TEATA on Gumpendorfer Strasse, directed by Sara Ostertag from the start of the 2025–26 season.

With: Shabnam Chamani, Florentine Krafft, Kaspar Locher, Johnny Mhanna, Maximilian Thienen; director: Sara Ostertag; set design: Nanna Neudeck; costumes: Romana Zöchling; live music and composition: Paul Plut; dramaturgy: Tobias Herzberg

More information about the programme can be found here.