Muzzled by Reza Shirmarz

Produced as a part Theatre of the Absurd Theatre 

Gwydion Theatre & Chopin Theatre (May 2025)

The 1st Annual Theater of the Absurd Festival at Chicago’s renowned Chopin Theatre (May 2–25, 2025) brought together eight darkly comedic one-act plays that probe authority, meaning, and the absurdity of power. Presented Fridays and Saturdays in rotating programs and culminating Sundays with discussions and community meals, the festival featured canonical works by Edward Albee, Sam Shephard, Harold Pinter, Israel Horovitz, Samuel Beckett, Slawomir Mrozek and Vaclav Havel, alongside a powerful Beckett–Havel–Shirmarz triptych: Catastrophe, The Mistake, and Muzzled. Directed by leading Chicago and university figures, the lineup wove a compelling narrative around oppression and resistance, merging theatrical rigor, intellectual engagement, and communal spirit.

Brian Shaw (PLAYWRIGHT) & Julie Hunicutt (ACTRESS)

A post-Beckettian descent into censorship, silence, and resistance. A response to Samuel Beckett’s Catastrophe and and Havel's ​Mistake forged in the fire of modern authoritarian repression.

ACTRESS        (feels a bit on edge) I promise, even if they force you to spend more time in jail, the bastard are not going to break me… (dubious) ever. I know though they won't stop at just tearing us down, they want us, they want everybody, to be paralyzed with fear.

PLAYWRIGHT        Yeah, they’re totally afraid of people shattering the silence. That’d be their end. (Pause. Emphasizing the positive.) They might let me out on parole after serving a couple of months. Who knows? - Muzzled

Julie Hunicutt (ACTRESS), Nigel Brown (COSTUME DESIGNER) & Michael Brown (STAGE MANAGER)

Director: Sami Ismat

Muzzled is a brutal, poetic, and bitingly absurd response to Samuel Beckett’s Catastrophe. Conceived under the shadow of censorship and performed against the odds, the play stages the systematic dismantling of creative autonomy by authoritarian power. A pregnant actress, a censored playwright, and a team of weary theater workers navigate a Kafkaesque maze of absurd rules, political mandates, and moral policing. With dark humor and metatheatrical flair, Muzzled becomes more than a performance,  it is an act of mourning, resistance, and resilience. It challenges the silencing of truth, reclaiming the stage as a space for memory, outrage, and irrepressible voice.

The Cast

Julie Granata-Hunicutt - ACTRESS

Louis Crespo - DIRECTOR

Michael Brown - STAGE MANAGER

Brian Shaw - PLAYWRIGHT

Nigel Brown - COSTUME DESIGNER

Sound Designer: Corey Smith

Reza Shirmarz, Iranian playwright and dramatist of Cinnamon Stars, Crystal Vines, and The Lanterns Are Weeping, responds to Samuel Beckett’s Catastrophe not with a whisper, but with a roar through the veil. Known for his fearless exploration of censorship, identity, and resistance, Shirmarz crafts Muzzled as a theatrical outcry against systems that silence dissent. Drawing from his personal battles with state repression and artistic suppression in Iran, the play transforms Beckett’s minimalist protest into a layered, visceral confrontation with authoritarian control. With biting irony and poetic rage, Shirmarz reclaims the stage as a space of truth-telling, defiance, and survival.

Brian Shaw & Julie Granata-Hunicutt

PLAYWRIGHT         (puts the glass on the bedside table and falls back on the bed) I’ve been having the same nightmare most nights, since they banned my plays and threatened my producers, my crew, my friends, my family… I saw myself chained by the wrists, I'm being pulled apart, torn into two pieces. I am struggling to break free of the chains. The more I struggle, the more it pulls. My body starts to rip apart, blood gushing from the cracks of my chest and belly. I try to shout out wildly and furiously… but they’ve muzzled me. (After a short pause) Suddenly, the chains change into strings and two monstrous puppeteers take control of my limbs. They move my head, my hands, and my feet. They have control over all my actions and thoughts. They even speak for me. They move my lips and say the things I never meant. Then, their voice changes into whistles. They whistle so loudly that I can’t take it anymore, I try to get rid of the strings, but the more I move, the tighter the strings get.

— Muzzled

Click to read Muzzled on Index On Censorship

Explore the Performance Photos

MANAGER          Apple instead of banana. (reads) "It is forbidden for women to eat banana or similar fruits on the stage. It looks inappropriate. Apple is a better choice."

DIRECTOR          (furious) It is only a banana. She needs it. She’s got a baby on the way and she needs to eat some goddamn sugary fruits. What is the fucking problem with the banana?

MANAGER         They say (reads again) “it looks inappropriate.”

​DIRECTOR        (bawls) Sometimes a banana is just a banana, you mash it up, you can put it in a smoothie, it doesn't impregnate anybody. (After a short pause) Well, then give her instead (winks angrily at ACTRESS giving her a quick wry smile) a thick “cucumber” to eat. That’s going to cheer the dirty- minded assholes up.

​-​ Muzzled

MANAGER     (reading from the list) “She must wear a thick scarf and the hair style should not be discernible under the scarf. Her make-up is too visible. Her lips are too red, make them pale. Her eyelashes are too visible. Eliminate them.”

​-​ Muzzled

Click to watch the talkback session after the performance on 25th of May 2025:

​