MUZZLED
A Play by Reza Shirmarz
A Play by Reza Shirmarz
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Theater of the Absurd Festival
Gwydion Theatre & Chopin Theatre 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.
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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
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)
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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.
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Director: Sami Ismat
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Meet the Cast
Louis Crespo - DIRECTOR
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Brian Shaw - PLAYWRIGHT
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Julie Granata-Hunicutt - ACTRESS
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Michael Brown - STAGE MANAGER
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Nigel Brown - COSTUME DESIGNER
Click to read more about Nigel
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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
— Muzzled
Explore the Performance Photos
Michael Brown (STAGE MANAGER)
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
- Muzzled
Julie Granata-Hunicutt (ACTRESS)
ACTRESS (feels a bit on edge) I promise, even if they force you to spend more time in jail, the bastards 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.
- Muzzled
- Muzzled
Brian Shaw (PLAYWRIGHT)
PLAYWRIGHT (hugs her from behind and kisses her on the neck) Don’t worry, darling. I promise I’m going to get back to you ASAP. (Jokingly) I’m going to be a good boy. Won’t give them a chance to torture me and hurt me, not for my sake, only for you and (touches her stomach) her.
- Muzzled
- Muzzled
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ACTRESS ...Murderers, bribers, fraudsters, rapists, muggers, and smugglers are out there living their filthy lives freely disguised themselves as politicians, men of God and businessmen, while people like you…
- Muzzled
- Muzzled
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
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
DIRECTOR (to the audience while others remain motionless) They’re building a labyrinth for us with no way out. They know how to neutralize our endeavors, our fucking presence. But it is what it is. They
don’t want us to have a real say here, do they? (smiles bitterly) Or we might think a different line of work in the future (everybody moves again).
- Muzzled
don’t want us to have a real say here, do they? (smiles bitterly) Or we might think a different line of work in the future (everybody moves again).
- Muzzled
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PLAYWRIGHT (sends her a kiss) Don’t worry, darling. I promise I’m going to get back to you ASAP. (Jokingly) I’m going to be a good boy. (jumps and kneels in front of her) Won’t give them a chance to torture me and hurt me, not for me, only for you and (points to her flat belly without touching it) her.
ACTRESS (also points to her own belly) She’s going to be the only connection between us…
- Muzzled
ACTRESS (also points to her own belly) She’s going to be the only connection between us…
- Muzzled
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ACTRESS (takes his hand and kisses it) She’s going to be the only connection between us… (Stands up and walks away) the only hope.
- Muzzled
- Muzzled
STAGE MANAGER first gives PLAYWRIGHT a coca cola and ACTRESS a Fanta and an apple, and then takes out a large black veil from the package and spreads it over the ACTRESS and covers her entire body. Shrill piercing whistles are blown. Blackout
The talkback after the performance