Exciting times have arrived for our successful play Return to Palestine. In the coming weeks, the play will be performed at several international festivals. The actors, all graduates of The Freedom Theatre’s Acting School, will spread the story of life under occupation in Palestine.

In a comic and tragic way, the play tells the story of American born Palestinian Jad who returns to his homeland. Here, he discovers Palestine is different from what is told on the news. The physical performance takes place at just a small part of the stage, which symbolises the restricted space of the Palestinian people. The play is based on true stories of life in Palestine, gathered through playback theatre during The Freedom Theatre’s Freedom Bus rides. It was originally produced in 2016, directed by Micaela Miranda.

Just as in the play, real life under occupation has its obstacles. From 11-14 April, Return to Palestine was invited by the Devir Capa Festival in Portugal. Unfortunately, our actors were not able to get their visas in time to travel to Portugal. Instead of the performance, our artistic director Nabil Al-Raee screened a promo about The Freedom Theatre and a registration of Return to Palestine, subtitled in Portuguese. After this, Nabil had an inspiring talk about art, activism and humanity with the audience.

Despite the unfortunate absence of our live performance of Return to Palestine, the screening of the play and the interactive talk with the audience afterwards, proved to be a fruitful time. People in the audience were moved by our story and we were able to talk about not only the Palestinian narrative, but also in a broader sense about humanity and the importance of cultural resistance in the fight for human rights for everyone. Nabil Al-Raee, Artistic Director

We are already looking forward to the upcoming performances in Turkey and Jordan. You can find the details below:

  • 28-30 April at Konya Theatre Festival, Konya, Turkey (find details about the performance here)
  • 1-4 May at International Festival of Liberal Theatre, Amman, Jordan

We are also happy to announce that we are working on a European tour for Return to Palestine, in autumn later this year. We are in touch with contacts in the UK, France, Sweden and Italy.
Are you interested in hosting us? Let us know via info@thefreedomtheatre.org.

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