A new apartment should be a warm and welcoming signal to a fresh chapter of life. It shouldn’t be where a family waits in the dark, surrounded by unpacked boxes, as missiles rain down around them.

Already eight years into the Iran–Iraq War, Nasrin and her two adult children—daughter Nahid and son Mahyar—just want to feel safe and settled. Tensions are already high, from bickering over who gets what room and what goes where to why Nahid’s husband left her. Mahyar leaves the apartment in a heated moment, leaving Nasrin racked with fear. As the missiles start to strike and the power goes out, Nahid tries to hold everything together. From that moment on, it’s about survival.

This heart-wrenching meta-autobiographical play, presented in both English and Farsi, is a window into days when death was practically a neighbour in war-torn Tehran. It’s a dedication to those who are left behind with the trauma of war and survivors’ guilt. Author Mohammad Yaghoubi survived it, so he had to write about it.

Born and raised in Iran, Mohammad Yaghoubi is an award-winning playwright, director, and screenwriter. He moved to Canada in 2015 and co-founded the Toronto-based NOWADAYS THEATRE company in 2016. His plays have been translated into six languages. Select awards include the Promising Pen Prize from Cahoots Theatre for his 2021 play Persimmon, winner of the Iranian Playwrights Society and third place of the New Play Contest at the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival for Outstanding Writing for A Moment of Silence, and the Tehran Theatre Festival Award (Fadjr) for Outstanding Direction and Writing for Winter of 88.

Mohammad Yaghoubi's profile page

Nazanin Malekan is a graduate of English translation from Iran, with an acting background in both Farsi and French. She moved to Canada in 2005 and was involved with the NAGs (Nomads Acting Group) between 2006 and 2011, where she acted in minor roles and helped with the props, stage management, and productions. She attended Aida Keykhaii’s acting workshop in 2016 and was cast in Dance of Torn Papers as the workshop’s final acting project in Toronto. She joined NOWADAYS THEATRE shortly after and collaborated with the company in areas such as script translations, grant applications, and other admin-related tasks. Nazanin joined Mohammad Yaghoubi’s acting workshops between 2017 and 2018 and was cast in Angles in Iran as the workshop’s final acting project in Toronto and Waterloo. She is a utility corporate planner from nine-to-five, and an art and theatre lover the rest of the day.

Nazanin Malekan's profile page

“The story shows the true cost of war.”

Deanne Kearney, Mooney on Theatre

“A beautiful, painful truth is laid bare here: life—in all its nasty, sweet and frustrating aspects—seems so precious when you are forced to acknowledge how quickly it can be lost.”

Istvan Dugalin, Istvan Reviews

"Winter of 88 clearly shows Yaghoubi not only wrestling with war, history, and survival, but with his relationships as an artist in the shaping of these forces’ emotional impacts on society and individuals and as a spouse dealing with personal memories beyond his own."

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