by Anne-Charlotte Gerbaud

In Saria Callas, Seemia Theatre and Sara Amini deliver a powerful solo show that explores identity, memory, and freedom. This multimedia production traces the journey of Saria, who fled Iran to escape a life of restriction, only to realise that her decision may also have paved the way for her child to live freely in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

Using a blend of storytelling, song, and films, Saria recalls her childhood, shaped by the oppressive structures of her homeland, where women are forbidden from singing and dancing. Defiance flares at times, from secret dances on a school trip to lying to protect classmates. Using any opportunity to sing and dance, Saria becomes the voice behind the call to prayer, feeling for a brief moment like a star: Saria Callas, her own reinvention of Maria Callas.

But the story darkens. Finding herself enforcing the restrictions she wants to resist, she decides to leave the country to seek freedom to build a life on her own terms. She goes to France, Poland, and ultimately London, where she raises the child she had with a Polish artist who wanted her to get an abortion.

Woven through this personal history is her relationship with her child. A trip to Iran becomes a turning point when the child is mocked for not acting “like a man,” and the once-close bond begins to strain. She later finds them in a situation she can’t quite name, but something feels “off.” Eventually, the child comes out as trans.

The play builds to a moment of reckoning: will she repeat the cycle of silence and shame she herself suffered, or will she choose a different path? The piece ends without a clear answer, but with a hopeful refrain: Queen’s “I Want To Break Free”.

Directed with clarity and performed with nuance, Saria Callas unfolds with strong pacing, punctuated by music and visual elements that anchor the emotional journey. The twist regarding the child’s identity is sensitively handled, subtly foreshadowed yet perfectly in tune with the play’s themes. Alongside the family story runs a broader commentary on what it means to be an artist under an autocratic regime, how creativity must contort itself to survive, and how self-expression can become both an act of rebellion and a source of danger.

At its heart, this is a story about cycles: how easily we become what we once resisted, and how difficult it is to break free. It’s about the fine line between protection and control, and about choosing love over fear when faced with the unknown.

“Who are you doing this for?” The piece seems to ask not just of the character, but of the audience too. Saria Callas reminds us that freedom is not a destination but a decision, one that must be made again and again.

Saria Callas ran through 17 May.