PROGRAMME 2025
PROGRAMME 2025
DAY 1: TUESDAY 12 AUGUST
tuesday 12 August
2pm (30 minutes)
Noor Abuarafeh:
An Orange Tree, an Olive Tree and a Painting That Knows No Borders
[PERFORMANCE]
This lecture-performance invites the audience on a personal and political journey through the West Bank's fragmented landscape. The narrator recounts their return home after a prolonged absence, facing the stark reality of a land under occupation. Guided by intimate hikes through the West Bank, they weave together encounters with fellow hikers, such as Mohamed, who documents each village through his sketches, preserving a disappearing landscape. These sketches echo the work of the narrator’s father, a painter whose art also serves as a testament to the Palestinian villages before their destruction. Slowly the audience is invited by the narrator to collectively reclaim a lost landscape in the face of settler colonial violence.
Image credit: Still from "An Orange Tree, an Olive Tree and a Painting That Knows No Borders," lecture performance. Orange Field in Gaza, 74x20 cm, oil on canvas, 2000, by Abdelrahman Abu Arafeh.
tuesday 12 August
4pm (60 minutes)
poetry from palestine: Dareen Tatour & gaza poets society
[POETRY]
Dareen Tatour is a poet, photographer, and film-maker from Palestine, her work chronicles her own experiences and those of the Palestinian people. Tatour came to international prominence in 2015 when she was arrested in her home by Israeli security forces and accused of inciting terrorism for writing a poem entitled ‘Resist, my people, resist them.’
Gaza Poets Society is a group of 32 young poets from Gaza. One of its founding members Mohammed Moussa will join us to give a reading entitled ‘Writing Poems in Times of Genocide. Moussa, who grew up in Jabalia Refugee Camp and works as a poet, journalist and translator has been a prominent voice during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. He has two published anthologies; his debut is *Flamingo*, and the third will be published soon.
tuesday 12 August
6pm (60 minutes)
Mahmoud Alhourani / Arab Puppet Theater Foundation:
Performance Desperately in Need of an Audience
[THEATRE]
This is a tale of uprooting and devastation, of the merciless force of war as it descends upon a peaceful village by the sea, tearing people away from their land and turning their simple lives into an unending nightmare.
At the heart of this chaos lives a simple man with his chicken and dog, going about his daily routine, unaware that the planes soaring above will soon reduce his home to rubble and make him a target in the path of war’s ruthless machinery.
This silent performance, laced with dark humour, bends the rules of puppet theatre, where stage props and settings—crafted from cardboard—become puppets themselves.
tuesday 12 August
8pm (60 minutes)
Fadi Murad:
Flux in this Forgotten Farm
[PERFORMANCE]
A performance between fire and water, between the past and future. A voice tries to speak, faster and faster, until it breaks. A body slips, calls out, wishes. My mother was a hydrologist. I saw her one last time. Water wages war. First fire found me. A father plays the oud. A smell disappears. A child sings. Between confession and collapse, something is carried. Something refuses to leave.
DAY 2: WEDNESDAY 13 AUGUST
Wednesday 13 August
12pm noon (60 minutes)
Ahmed Alnouq:
We Are Not Numbers
[PANEL DISCUSSION]
These are the stories of young people from Gaza, born under Israeli occupation and blockade. They are people who have endured unspeakable struggles and losses, who keep fighting to be recognised not as numbers, but as human beings with hopes, dreams and lives worth living.
We Are Not Numbers was founded in 2014 to give voice to the youth of Gaza. Writer Ahmed Alnouq will share their writing, vital, urgent and full of heart, spanning over ten years to the present moment, their work offers an unparalleled insight into the past, as well as the current and next generation of Palestinian leaders, artists, scientists and scholars and imagine where we might go from here.
Wednesday 13 August
2pm (60 minutes)
The Hands Up Project:
Welcome to Gaza
[THEATRE]
Dancing, genies, animals, mother-in-laws and ghosts. Messages - phone calls, zoom calls, voice notes - reporting a nightmare of bombed hospitals and schools, children lying like rubble in the collapsing streets.
Performed by some of their original creators, 19 plays by children from Gaza and the West Bank, written pre-October 7th 2023, are woven into a continuous play, continually interrupted by messages from the genocide. The plays were submitted for the Hand’s Up Project’s annual remote theatre competition in 2017, 2018 or 2019, and previously published in Hands Up publications Toothbrush, Welcome to Earth and Popcorn. Continually interrupted by verbatim audio, written and video, the play portrays real life in Gaza before and after the watershed of October 7th 2023.
Welcome to Gaza is produced by the Hands Up Project, and compiled and directed by award-winning playwright, Peter Oswald.
Wednesday 13 August
4pm (45 minutes)
Gazelleband
[MUSIC]
Gazelleband present the Palestinian story through music and storytelling, led by Gaza’s first female oud player, Reem Anbar. This duo set with writer and buzuq player Louis Brehony explores the shared musics of Palestine and its surrounding region, blended with tales of resistance from around the world.
Wednesday 13 August
6pm (60 minutes)
KeffIyeh: Made in China
[THEATRE]
The play 'Craving Mangoes' is written by the wonderful Palestinian playwright Dalia Taha (Royal Court). It is a surreal almost Beckettian piece in regards to the writing and language of the play. A mother and father avoid confirming the identity of a young, unidentified body, doing their best to narrate a version of events in which he is still alive. The play is a short two-hander naturalistic style, set in the unknown and unfolding within a single timescale. It is a surreal psychological thriller with a story that resonates universally. It explores themes of loss, denial, and grief.
Essentially a play about love. In “Craving Mangoes,” the second episode of ''Keffiyeh: Made in China'' (a collection of award winning short plays), Dalia Taha ushers us into a parent’s worst nightmare — identifying a son at the local morgue. A nameless Palestinian couple sits outside the vault, unable to step inside.
This will be performed alongside another episode of the collection, testimonies, and a poem of Mahmoud Darwish.
Wednesday 13 August
8pm (60 minutes)
Sami Abu Wardeh
[COMEDY]
One hour of theatre and comedy, taking aim at the fascistic tendencies of Western "civilisation". Storytelling, joke-telling and physical comedy abound in this attack on the flimsy construct of nationalism and the tools of state oppression.
DAY 3: THURSDAY 14 AUGUST
thursday 14 August
12pm noon (60 minutes)
Nafas Collective:
Ruh al Ruh (The soul of my soul)
[STAGED READING]
Rafat Al Aydi is a Gaza-based playwright and director. He wrote the basic storyline of Ruh al Ruh in one day and one night last summer during the war in Gaza. That of a couple that is in the war trying to find their lives inside the situation. The woman tries to hold them together inside their home clinging to their old life. The man goes outside to try to fix their life, but he is an artist and wants to fight the war in his way, through imagination. Both fight in their different ways to keep sane within the situation of war. The play is an ode to imagination and the ‘artist way of living’.
Nafas Collective is an international theatre collective that initiates projects that deal with humanity in a hardening society worldwide. In our work we explicitly seek dialogue and connection through theatrical imagination and philosophical research. This play will be done as a rehearsed reading with local actors.
After the reading there will be an after talk with writer Rafat Al Aydi (if a connection with Gaza can be established at that moment).
thursday 14 August
2pm (60 minutes)
dance double bill:
AMIR SABRA & NUR GARABLI
[DANCE]
Within This Party is a work of Palestinian contemporary dance from the renowned dancer and choreographer Amir Sabra. Drawing on hip hop, dabkeh, and improvisation to search for the personal and the intimate within the collective, it continues Sabra’s exploration of that elusive and distinctive quality that can take familiar movements and gestures, and transform them into something unique.
CHÉ: (not) a ballet
A dance for two artivists,
Rooted in Arab-Palestinian memory.
CHÉ: (not) a ballet moves through earth, energy, and gender, where the body carries what history tried to bury, and silence has a rhythm of its own.
It echoes the struggles of women navigating layers of control: the weight of censorship, the grip of patriarchy, the relentless tension between survival and resistance – a force that shakes the chest, settles in the pelvis, and meets the earth with every stomp.
Through presence that is raw, physical,vocal and unfiltered, the work turns pain into protest and memory into motion, reclaiming space, rewriting identity, and embodying agency.
Thursday 14 August
4pm (60 minutes)
Amal Kaawash:
مراجيح Marajeeh (Swings)
[MUSIC]
A musical encounter where Amal Kaawash brings to life songs from the Palestinian tradition; as part of the wider heritage of Bilad El Sham, alongside her own original compositions, rooted in her experience as a Palestinian artist born in Lebanon to a family displaced from Palestine in 1948. Joined by the brilliant guitarist Joe Aouad, Amal weaves music and storytelling into a continuation of the collective narrative, where inherited memory and present-day expression meet.
Thursday 14 AugusT
6pm (60 minutes)
AMIRA AL SHANtI:
HARVEST
[WORK IN PROGRESS]
An intimate concert and reading of Harvest the Musical by composer, writer and performer Amira Al Shanti. The musical follows the story of six women during the Olive Harvest in Palestine, showcasing how traditions prevail despite the ongoing challenges of occupation and apartheid. This is the first time Harvest will be shared publicly, with a unique showcase of the songs and reading of the plot by Amira. Like roots sprouting from a seed, it is hoped that this showcase will lead to more opportunities for this musical in the future.
Thursday 14 August
8pm (75 minutes)
Artists on the Frontline / Ahmed Tobasi:
And Here I Am
[THEATRE]
Written by Hassan Abdulrazzak
Based on the life and performed by Ahmed Tobasi
And Here I Am is a gripping coming-of-age story based on the life and performed by Palestinian artist Ahmed Tobasi. Set against the backdrop of the First and Second Intifada, we follow his epic journey from the battle-scarred alleys of Jenin Refugee Camp, to the confines of an Israeli prison. From an armed resistance fighter to an artist. From exile in Norway back to his homeland, where he continues to resist using culture
Combining fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy, award-winning writer Hassan Abdulrazzak captures an extraordinary odyssey of defiance, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of freedom.
As the Israeli army once again invades Jenin Refugee Camp, And Here I Am is not just a tale from the past—it is an urgent story of the present.
Performed in Arabic with English subtitles.
DAY 4: FRIDAY 15 AUGUST
Friday 15 August
12pm noon (60 minutes)
Diline Abushaban:
Gaza Food and Stories
[STORYTELLING]
Join us for this exciting event with a combination of food demonstration and storytelling. You will be hosted by Diline, an author and storyteller from Gaza, living in Scotland. With healing intentions, Diline will make a popular Gazan recipe and will share stories about Palestine's rich culture and cuisine and their role in resisting the injustice and in keeping a deep connection to Palestine from anywhere in the world. The stories, smells, sounds and finally the taste will make you feel as if you were in Palestine. At the end of this event you’ll be excited to go home to make the recipe you learned and tell the stories you heard over and over again.
Photo: Matteo Crawford
Friday 15 August
2pm noon (60 minutes)
amir sabra:
Dabke workshop, for all ages
[DANCE WORKSHOP]
Supported by Imaginate and The Work Room.
Dabke, stamping on the feet. It is a traditional folk dance that holds deep cultural significance in Palestinian communities. It’s usually performed at celebrations, weddings, and festivals. Dabke often involves a line or circle of dancers who move in coordinated steps, clapping, stomping, and sometimes jumping in rhythm. The movement can be energetic, and the foot stomps have a symbolic connection to the land, reflecting a deep-rooted cultural pride and unity among Palestinians.
friday 15 August
4pm (60 minutes)
Randa Jarrar:
The Last palestinian alive
[THEATRE]
Asheerah, a young woman enduring genocide, utilizes a series of local inventions to avoid consciously going through the pain of bombings and annihilation. Wrapped in a shroud, she wakes up in 2055 and comes to realize that she is the last person on earth.
Through the use of another invention, she finds a friend in Francesca, an AI companion that carries the consciousness of Italian legal scholar and expert on human rights, Francesca Albanese.
The audience bears witness alongside Asheerah as she learns, through Francesca’s history channels, how the world ended, and how those who resisted made sure to carry out justice before their demise.
friday 15 August
7pm (50 minutes)
LAFI: The people x land
[MUSIC/HIP HOP)
Mohammed Lafi is a Palestinian rap artist from Jabalia Camp, Gaza, known for using music to confront oppression, siege, and political repression. Starting in 2011, he creatively turned basic household tools into recording gear and his rooftop into a stage. His activism intensified with the 2017 youth movement "We Want to Live," leading to his arrest and multiple imprisonments by Hamas authorities from 2018 to 2022 due to his outspoken songs on Gaza’s harsh realities. Despite facing physical and psychological abuse, he continued to produce powerful music reflecting his experiences. His story gained international attention through Human Rights Watch, BBC documentaries, and various media outlets. Today, amid ongoing threats and conflict, Mohammed remains committed to using his art as a voice for freedom and hope.
About The People X Land, Lafi said:
“My people have been annihilated for 77 years for land grab based on religious and nationalist claims we neither chose nor understand. My people are simple, want to live, but have no options. The world doesn’t understand that we love and deserve life like everyone else. Outside Gaza, people can reshape their lives, we face only death in different forms, now by hunger. We want to escape this madness and rebuild what’s left of us. The sand will remain, but our souls won’t. I’m Lafi. I carry this land inside me, I seek life beyond this cage.”
friday 15 August
9pm (60 minutes)
Bruno Cruz: Arab a Dub Dj Set
[MUSIC]
Get ready for an electrifying DJ set that dives into the heart of Palestinian underground music! From the freshest beats to the lively rhythms of dabke and dahyeh, this performance is an explosion of sound and energy. It's a journey through the vibrant pulse of Palestinian culture, bringing together traditional dance with cutting-edge underground sounds. In short, it's a non-stop Palestinian dance party!
SATURDAY 16 August
12-2pm (DROP IN)
Welcome to the Fringe: Palestine - Family Picnic
[PICNIC]
Join Imaginate for a family picnic in Portobello as part of the Welcome to the Fringe: Palestine programme. This event is an opportunity to celebrate the programme and is for all of the artists, staff and volunteers at Welcome to the Fringe: Palestine, as well as local families and creatives.
The picnic is free to attend, you can drop in at any time between 12 - 2pm starting at Bellfield. We ask you to book a free ticket so we can estimate numbers for the catering - Book a ticket on Eventbrite. You can choose to add a donation when you book your ticket, this will be sent to Welcome To The Fringe, Palestine to help fund this programme of work.