The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, as part of Refugee Festival Scotland 2026, presents a work-in-progress reading of Strikers, a new play written and directed by former IASH Fellow Javad Daraei. The play explores labour, displacement, dignity, and resistance through stories shaped by lived experiences of survival and exile. Book tickets here.
Strikers is a politically charged, absurdist play about a soldier falling apart under the pressure of war. Javvo is forced into conscription. As conflict tears through him, his sense of self fragments. Different parts of his body - his Ears, Eyes, Brain, Mouth, Hands, Legs, Nose, Heart, and Mr.Penis - become separate characters, each with its own voice. Together they argue, remember, and try to survive inside a man who is losing himself. The play unfolds in three episodes:
Convict to Be: Javvo is taken from his life and forced into war.
Convict to Bear: He endures torture as his fragmented self struggles to hold together.
Convict to Repeat: After the violence, he must learn to live again.
The work is informed by the writer’s own experience as a political prisoner tortured in Iran, and his father’s imprisonment and torture as a soldier in the Iran–Iraq war. But this is not autobiography, it is a collective cry. Strikers asks you to witness, not to pity.
This event is delivered in partnership with U Belong Glasgow. It will include a work-in-progress reading of the play, performed by Sanjay Lago.
