When Golnar, a punkish Iranian-American millennial, returns home to her mother, Nasrin, for the anniversary of her father’s passing, she walks into hoards of family memorabilia that her grandmother, Mamani, has moved in with her. Golnar tries to get “the dames” to get rid of some stuff, but Nasrin resists. While getting ready for the anniversary gathering, Golnar searches for her lost box of medicinal ’shrooms. As the evening intensifies within the cramped space, Golnar comes to find out the dames are trying to set her up with a family-friend, Arash. Who survives the night? What’s inside the tea that everyone’s drinking? This play is about generational differences, grief, control and learning to let go of it. But more than anything, it is a love story to our immigrant mothers.

Anita Abdinezhad*
Pronouns (she/her/hers)

Abdinezhad is thrilled to be collaborating with Shakespeare & Company on her first full-length play. She is a writer and actor based in Los Angeles and New York, N.Y. Her writing credits include Three Tall Persian Women (the one act) at San Francisco Playhouse and Fareeda’s Phantasias (½ comedy pilot), a semifinalist at Sundance Episodic Lab. Acting credits include Broadway: POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, (Shubert Theatre); Off-Broadway: Persian Pod (Ars Nova), Bismillah (Wild Project), and The Welcoming Committee (The Lark); TV and Film: Girls on the Bus (HBO Max), Evil (Paramount+), Ahamed’s Ramadan Diary (Comedy Central), and Eradication (Tubi). Abdinezhad is also a co-creator with Dalia Ashurina on an exciting ½ hour comedy pilot, Understudies.