Arts and Culture 19 December 2014
A scene in Suicide Note from Palestine. (Jenin Freedom Theatre)
The Jenin-based Freedom Theatre will be giving international audiences the chance to view one of its productions, Suicide Note from Palestine, via online streaming this weekend.
The live performance will take place at 15:00 (Palestine time, which is GMT+2) tomorrow (20 December). This will be repeated at a later time the same day, and again on Sunday, all via the theater’s live stream channel.
Suicide Note from Palestine is a piece of contemporary theater written specially for the Jenin-based company and was first staged in April 2013. According to the theater company’s website, it features Amal (played by Christine El Hodali), embodying her country, Palestine, lying in a hospital bed.
Her heartbeat has stopped and medical staff wearing UN-marked coats are trying to resurrect her. Amal (the Arabic word for “hope”) has decided to die as a political act.
The play is a damning indictment of the complicity of the European, American and Arab political elites in the Israeli occupation and repression of Palestine.
The play is performed in Arabic; a scene breakdown in English is available here.
The play opened earlier this week in the Jenin refugee camp. Following its run in Jenin, it will be performed elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, visiting Hebron and Bethlehem. The play is also scheduled to tour the US in September 2015.
