Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show w/Josh Hamzehee

02/28/2026

New war? Same story. Burnt City explores why, how, and yeah, we saw it coming. Add the award-winning US vs Iran show to your school, institution, or theater in 2026-27. Contact [email protected] of visit joshhamzehee.com to book the trip to the past, present, and future.

07/25/2025

"Burnt City," coming to a space near you in 2025-26!

Burnt City (or شهر سوخته) is a 60 minute solo show about U.S.-Iran relations, using history, poetry, humor, video, vignettes, and Farsi to excavate how domestic abuse at home is congruous to violence inflicted by governments on citizens.

I've paired this timely production with respondents and talkbacks, residencies, Q&A’s, workshops, and other requests specialized to the institution. Additionally, I have other award-winning projects that could fit your needs here, like "The Deported: A Reality Show" and the upcoming "Dead Mom Jokes": https://lnkd.in/gdz5MFcH

Let me know if you have questions. I'd love to collaborate with your community.
-Josh/Kurosh

04/28/2025

"We are honored to be collaborating with San Jose State University on the upcoming day-long event, “Performing Iranian Diasporas” which features a series of live performances, play readings, films, and digital installations on Iranian identity and migration. May 3, 2-25, 1-6 PM, in the Hal Todd Theatre (HGH 103), SJSU. Presenters: Lanna Joffrey, London-based performance artist, Josh Hamzehee, California-based performance artist, Farshad Farahat, LA-based actorChristian Haines, LA-based actor, Persis Karim, documentary maker and Director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, SF State, Giles Croft, Broadway and West End theatre director. Free and open to the public. Funded by: College of Humanities and the Arts Artistic Excellence Programming Grant; the Department of Film, Theatre, and Dance at San José State University; and the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, San Francisco State University."

04/25/2025

06/08/2023

Josh Hamzehee interviewed yesterday by Al Jazeera English about Vaziri's passing and Burnt City:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/7/the-complex-legacy-of-us-professional-wrestlings-iron-sheik

"His death brought a lot to mind for Josh Hamzehee, whose play Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show explores questions of biracial identity, masculinity and the playwright’s own relationship with his Iranian father.

At times in the show, Hamzehee embodies the Iron Sheik, a figure he grew up “not necessarily idolising” but who nevertheless played a “big factor in how I understood my own Iranian heritage”.

“It’s been interesting trying to get into what that mindset is, of someone who has to repeatedly be a villain and see their own heritage as a villain and try to embrace that,” Hamzehee said. “It’s a lens that has allowed me to understand myself a lot. But it is understanding myself through my Iranian heritage — through how maybe the West has put it out for me.”

For Hamzehee, that conflict was perhaps best embodied in the infamous 1984 match between the Iron Sheik and Hulk Hogan.

“At the end of it, you think he’s going to win because he has Hogan in his finishing hold, but then Hogan breaks out of it and leg drops him,” he said. “I think that’s the in-between space I always find myself at when I think about him.”

Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, who died on Wednesday, both perpetuated and transcended stereotypes in his role as wrestler.

10/14/2022

Tickets are still available for tonight’s performance of “Burnt City”! Tonight at 7:30 in Lang Hall 040

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/burnt-city-tickets-426140366307

10/11/2022

Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show
Created & Performed by Josh Hamzehee
October 14 @ 7:30pm
Interpreter's Theatre (Lang 040)
Tickets are free but seating is limited.
Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/426140366307

Burnt City (or شهر سوخته) is about United States-Iran relations, using poetry, humor, video, vignettes, and Farsi to excavate how domestic abuse at home is congruous to violence inflicted by governments on citizens. And, yes, it is a comedy... of horrors! Winner of 2022's IAANI Outstanding Visual Project Award and CSCA's Outstanding AutoEthnography, Hamzehee was inspired to write the show in Farglish (Farsi-English) as a way of inviting unfamiliar audiences into a beautiful Persian culture often weaponized by America as anti-American.

Joshua Hamzehee, PhD, is a performance scholarpractitioner engaging in critical ethnography, spoken-word roots, and remixed performance techniques. A Communication Studies professor and Director of the Forensics Speech, Debate, and Performance Team at Santa Rosa Junior College, Hamzehee's creative, national touring, and award-winning performances include Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show, Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016, The Deported: A Reality Show!, and CONVICT: The Age of Incarceration, his nationally-recognized scholarship are in journals like Text and Performance Quarterly, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, and Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, and his creative projects have toured in over 30 states.

10/08/2022

Featured as part of UNIty week at University of Northern Iowa:

Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show (Tickets Free at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/426140366307) Created & performed by Josh Hamzehee, 7:30 p.m., Interpreters Theatre, Lang Auditorium 040 (2401 Wisconsin St, Cedar Falls, IA 50614)

https://unipanthers.com/news/2022/10/4/general-uni-athletics-set-to-hold-first-week-of-unity.aspx

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- For the third year straight, UNI student-athletes will host their annual UNIty Walk on the morning of Monday, Oct. 10. For the past three years, the UNIty Walk has served as a reminder of the importance of inclusion and community, and has become a space for UNI student-athletes...

10/08/2022

This week, UNI Interpreters Theatre brings Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show w/Josh Hamzehee to Cedar Falls, IA, for performances and design workshops.

“I, Josh Hamzehee, can't wait to return to the state and people I've spent 9 of the last 12 years of my life with!”

Friday, 10/14--free show!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/burnt-city-tickets-426140366307