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WAre hats important in theater productions? Actors, writers, equipment and rehearsal space, to name a few. What happens when these things are pushed to their extremes? Companies like Belarus Free Theater and and Freedom Theatre They have shown that the theater does not stop producing even when bombs and bullets attack the building. This work finds its way to the audience.
This is a series of nine short plays written by Palestinian playwrights, poets and artists, and directed by Ahmed Masoud and Micaela Miranda. Four writers are currently in Gaza while two were former political prisoners, including Walid Daqqa, one of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners, who died in prison in 2024. The comment from The Martyrs Return to Ramallah (translated by Julia Choucair Vizoso) is absurd and terrifying, which shows and is held in prisons that are discussed in Israeli prisons that begin to be buried. other.
Its absurd results go through several plays, including The Last Letter by Mohammed Al Qudwa (translated by Mona Al-Khatib) in which a confused man in the last house standing on the pavements of a Gazan street receives letters full of existential questions and sound words, written to the world and people.
Performed on stage by eight of the most famous actors in Palestine and created by Joel Samuels, artistic director of Bet’n Lev Theater together with White Kite Collective and PalArt Collective, they all show real-time drama and tragedy, and similar to what Nicolas has done in recent collections. Unbroken Ukraineat the Arcola Theatre.
Live events intersect with political theater as we travel from hospitals to morgues to refugee camps. Doctors, Dareen Tatour (imprisoned by Israel for his poetry) has a Palestinian doctor who is told that expressions of grief for wounded Palestinians “could be crimes” while Jehad Abu Dayya’s Ruins (translated by Hassan Abdulrazzak) is a tragic drama that shows a family caught in the destruction.
Five Minutes with Motasem Abu Hasan brings a sense of urgency as the narrator sums up the arrest of a brother and son in Nablus with a quick exaggeration (“I don’t have much time. London only gave me five minutes”). It is a powerful text in which a mother asks an Israeli soldier to give her one last hug to her condemned son.
The Cage, by Ali Abu Yassin (reinterpreted by Abdulrazzak) is a satire with unspeakable fury and featuring a crippled girl with a bomb, who refuses to speak despite (or maybe because of) being a journalist. You can feel the child’s anger in his constant silence in the world promising safety around him.
There are several children’s plays: Dr Hope and the Lantern of Miracles by Imad Wahba, The Piper by Hossam Al-Madhoun and Santa Claus on Holiday by Nahil Mohana. The latter, translated by Katharine Halls, features a journey from Santa to the bombed Gaza Strip; comes with an empty bag but talks about the importance of laughter and hope.
This is a message that cuts across several of these games. The world of this game is a “city of zombies” and the result of “the most stupid wars,” as someone says in Ruins. But hope is still beside the fear.
