Under The Shadow - Almeida Theatre

Djiin And Djang

Under The Shadow (stage adaptation)
Directed by Nadia Latif
Adapted by Carmen Nasr
From the film by Babak Anvari,
Almeida Theatre on Saturday 20th June 2026

The Almeida Theatre is possibly my favourite theatre... despite this being only my third visit since the mid-1980s, when I saw Joanne Whalley in a production of Wedekind’s The Lulu Plays (playing the role Louise Brooks made famous in Pandora's Box) and also, about nine years ago, an amazing adaptation of The Twilight Zone (reviewed here). I just like the look of the theatre, I think... although the surrounding streets seem to have changed quite a bit since I was last there. 

I’m on their mailing list though so was surprised then I saw that they’ve put on a theatrical production of the amazing ‘evil djiin’ movie Under The Shadow from 2016 (which I reviewed here). On the one hand it’s perfect for a stage adaptation because the film is mostly just set in one apartment building, for most of the time. But, yeah, there are special effects to think about which would make a stage adaptation very hard. Also, I couldn’t see how my favourite moment, when Shideh runs from the house in terror, only to be promptly detained by the local authorities for not wearing her head scarf, could be recreated on stage. And as for that last point... I was right, they didn’t even try and I can certainly see why it was cut, even just for pacing reasons here because you need to keep the momentum going on this particular stage show, I think.

But I went anyway and was astonished to find that, actually, it was a pretty great, solid two hours of theatre and I absolutely loved it. The format is such that, to get certain things across which are done easier and quicker on film, things had to be added. For instance, there are some wonderful scenes with the entire cast stuffed into a small space under a trap door at the front of the stage, which is doubling for their underground shelter from the bombs and, ultimately, missiles falling on their home city of Tehran and these serve to get huge amount of information across about both the characters and their relationships to each other... and the political turmoil of the country in 1988, when this tale is set. 

And there’s a lot more of Shideh’s husband in this for the first half, before he’s sent off as a doctor to ‘the front’. Again, lots of information given throughout these scenes and they work very well.

The performances in this, even from the child actors, are pretty strong too. I really liked Leila Farzad, the lead actress playing Shideh in this version and, I loved her chemistry with both her daughter and, especially, her older neighbour played by Souad Faress. Farzad really came across as a woman who is living with the hell of not being allowed to continue her medical studies, due to early political affiliations, while also being a modern, independently thinking woman in a country which, perhaps, did not encourage such attitudes at the time (if I’m off here in that assumption, please put me right in the comments below). 

The staging is wonderful too. The way the space is divided and an amazing set of Shideh’s apartment, with depth added through open doors (again, the artistic world owes a debt to Roger Corman’s set dressing technique) is impressive and allows for a small strip of ‘the street’ down the front of the stage. Okay, some of the scares didn’t quite work for me but I’m putting that down to being jaded and old and, I can tell you, they were certainly working for the rest of the audience. And the sequence where the unexploded missile lands above Shideh’s ceiling and is poking through it, revealed in a top section of the stage you didn’t even know existed until the reveal... is absolutely stunning. 

Another big change is the ending of the film... if I remember it rightly... and without giving too much away, it gives us something both more hopeful in one sense but, depending on how you interpret things, something far more cynical than the original version. In fact, I’d have to say that I kind of liked this ending a little better, which all hangs on a monologue given by Leila Farzad.

And that’s me done with the stage version of Under The Shadow, I think. I had a really good time with this one and was really pleased I saw it. However, it’s only on for another couple of weeks so do yourself a favour and grab a ticket while you can. And while you’re there, grab a small tub of the salted butterscotch ice cream from their bar, it’s wonderful stuff. 

 To grab a ticket for the show, check out their website here... https://almeida.co.uk/