Theatre and the Digital: Immersive Performance with Javaad Alipoor

Javaad Alipoor

Javaad Alipoor is a British-Iranian writer, director and performer. He founded The Javaad Alipoor Company in 2019. The Company’s most recent work, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, opened to five-star reviews and sell-out audiences at Battersea Arts Centre and HOME, Manchester. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World then began a world tour, opening in the USA at The University of Michigan and Australia at The Sydney Opera House.

Previously, Javaad Alipoor wrote, co-directed and performed in The Believers Are But Brothers as an international touring show, and wrote and performed in the TV adaptation for BBC Four. Its follow up, Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, also co-created with Kirsty Housley, won a Fringe First Award before the COVID-19 lockdown led it to transform into an immersive digital experience. The digital version opened at Battersea Arts Centre, before playing at Sundance Film Festival and The Public Theatre's Under the Radar Festival.  

Together with Chris Thorpe, Javaad Alipoor wrote and directed the trilingual theatre production, Made of Mannheim, which had its world premiere with Nationaltheater Mannheim and Theaterhaus G7.

Javaad was Resident Associate Director at Sheffield Theatres from 2017-18 where he directed a new version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Prior to this he was Associate Director at Bradford’s Theatre in the Mill from 2015-17. Javaad is involved in politics and activism, co-founding The International Alliance in Support of Iranian Workers, The Syria Solidarity Campaign and a Bradford-based network supporting EU migrants after Brexit. His writing about politics and culture has been featured in The Guardian, The Independent and The Stage. His plays have been published by Oberon and Nick Hern, and his poetry by Art in Usual Places.