We Are Being Watched

“We Are Being Watched ” is a play about people who are constantly under the gaze of others, speaking to an audience who has experienced or is experiencing such scrutiny. The play touches on a pervasive aspect of modern life: individuals struggling to save themselves under the oppressive weight of others’ eyes. These intrusive gazes are either imposed by governments for political purposes and self-preservation against activists in political, social, and cultural spheres or driven by people’s curiosity and desire to uncover truths about those they interact with. Undoubtedly, we must also acknowledge that in an era where even social media and communication tools are leveraging technology and artificial intelligence to discover individuals’ desires, some people are simultaneously striving to escape such exposure through various means, such as resistance, migration, or even hiding to avoid being seen. The play, told in three episodes, explores events surrounding this theme. Each character narrates their own story, and the setting is a collection of apartment buildings in central Tehran, with each episode taking place in different units of an apartment. In the first episode, Nima and Nazi tell the story of a couple whose lives are threatened due to Nima’s political art as a documentary filmmaker. They are under immense political pressure and are planning to escape their nightmarish situation by migrating from Iran to Toronto. In the second episode, we encounter the life of an actor who has been banned from working and is deeply affected by migration. After failing in his artistic career and after her migration, she has now returned from Toronto to Tehran. She is trying to survive her personal life or expose its truths, focusing on uncovering the full reality of her relationship.

Meanwhile, we follow Mania, a girl who, for the sake of survival and love, chose not to accompany her family in their migration to Toronto. By chance, she unexpectedly confronts truths about her life and romantic relationship. In the third episode, we meet Ebi and Hamid, two individuals who have emerged from society and are now clashing with each other as they tell their stories—one as the observer and the other as the victim of being watched. Both, however, bear an undeniable similarity: they will stop at nothing, even stepping on others, to advance themselves. Perhaps the discrimination and grudges of their pasts drive their choices, but whatever the reason, both have turned into attackers and multipliers of this unpleasant social imbalance.

Content warning: mature content and mature language