Cafe Palestine 15

Café Palestine Fifteen with the Hands Up theatre company via zoom
young people from Palestine
making drama out of a crisis

The Hands up Project is a UK registered charity, providing English language development for young people in Palestine, through online storytelling, drama and intercultural link ups. The Hands Up project runs an annual remote theatre competition and thousands of young people in Palestine have submitted plays for this. The plays are also published in book format and available to buy here.

https://handsupproject.org/how-to-buy-our-books-of-plays-created-by-young-people-in-palestine/

In Cafe Palestine we saw three live zoom performances:

‘I couldn’t say goodbye’, which is made by children in Gaza, tells the story of a bereaved mother saying her final words to her son. Created and performed by Iman Ridwan and Marwa Husam from Rimal Prep Girls school B, with support from their teacher Amal Mukhairez.

‘An exile inside the home country’ tells the story of the long term impact on the well being of a teenage boy whose father is imprisoned in an Israeli jail. Created and performed by Raw’aa Azem Abu Arra (15), Ola Muhammad Abu Arra(15), Sarah Amjad Abu Arra (13) from the Japanese Primary School for Girls, Tubas, Palestine with support from their teacher Shorouq Daraghmeh

‘Oh my home’ is made by children from Gaza and is the universal tragic story of being a refugee, told from the point of view of the sea. Created and performed by Nour Ziada 14, Haya Orouq 14, Rana Al-Basha 14, Farah Abu Obaid 12 and Doaa Abu Sharar 13 from Asmaa Prep School “B” UNRWA school for girls with support from their teacher Haneen Jadalla.

Nick Bilbrough from the Hands Up project introduced the plays and led an online discussion about the pieces and the work of the project after the performances.

The Cafe started music from the main branch of the Edward Said National Conservatory for Music in Ramallah. As always we are grateful for the assistance of PalMusic UK in arranging this event. The music featured three performances featuring:

  • Ramallah Violin Quintet with Mahmoud Karazon , Dana Sbaih, Layan Olayan, Celina Tannous, & Kareem Barakat playing Akher Ayyam Tango which is a traditional Fairouz piece. It is a mix between Akher Ayyam Sayfeh fairouz and a small tango of Mahmoud
  • Fares Nael Karam playing the qanoon. The piece is Escapes Eyes by Khalid Mohammad Ali.
  • Qussay AlQasem playing Prelude N3, Heitor Villa-Lobos for guitar

The full concert programme is available here: Online Concert 31_10_2020.