06 July 2020 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, 8pm GMT+3
ILLEGALISED - BÉZNĂ Theatre
ILLEGALISED is an international, multi-lingual production and world premiere of a new political text exposing the dehumanising effects of the British State’s anti-immigration policies on migrants and those seeking asylum in the UK. ILLEGALISED ruthlessly investigates the Immigration Industrial Complex and the vast profit made by the Home Office and its corporate partners from the illegalisation of human beings. ILLEGALISED is the first in BÉZNĂ Theatre’s cycle of multi-lingual plays denouncing Britain’s dehumanising of people for power and profit from colonial times to today.
POST-SHOW PANELLISTS
Nadine El-Enany, author of (B)ordering Britain
Malia Bouattia, editor of Red Pepper Magazine
Monish Bhatia, lecturer in Criminology at Birkbeck
Theo St. Claire, actor & activist
20 July 2020 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, 8pm GMT+3
HEAVENS - ZOUKAK THEATRE company
"Heavens" is a play by Zoukak theatre company, performed by a chorus of 3 women, tackling the subject of collective and individual memory of the Lebanese civil war. The play revisits themes such as Lebanon's missing and forcibly disappeared and the general amnesty law of 1991, as the 3 women delve into their memories to give us a glimpse of how it was like to grow up as a girl/woman in war torn Beirut.
The performance is in Arabic with English subtitles, panel TBA and will be conducted in English.
POST-SHOW PANELLISTS
Maya Zbib, performer in Heavens
Junaid Sarieddeen, director of Heavens
Chris Thorpe, British playwright and performer
Nizar Saghieh, lawyer, researcher & activist for Legal Agenda (intervention)
03 AUGUST 2020 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, 8pm GMT+3
I HAVE MET THE ENEMY - COMMON WEALTH
I Have Met the Enemy is performed by Mo’min Swaitat, Alexander Eley and Shatha Altowai – a Palestinian actor, former British soldier and a Yemeni artist who connect in a joint attempt to understand the UK arms trade and its impact around the world. With lasers, techno and robotic installation to represent the 72 Eurofighter Jets sold by the UK to Saudi Arabia to be used in Yemen, I Have Met The Enemy asks audiences to take a close look at the UK defence industry and the role we play, as a nation and as individuals, in conflict and occupation around the world.
POST-SHOW PANELLISTS
Evie Manning, Artistic Director of Common Wealth
Rhiannon White, Artistic Director of Common Wealth
Mo’min Swaitat, performer in I Have Met the Enemy
Alexander Eley, performer in I Have Met the Enemy
Shatha Altowai, performer in I Have Met the Enemy
17 AUGUST 2020 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, 8pm GMT+3
PEACE OH PEACE - NABIL SAWALHA
Join Nabil Sawalha (winner of The Medal of Independence 1st Class from King Hussein for achievements in the arts) to watch clips and then discuss Peace Oh Peace - a show he toured from Jordan to Israel in 1995. Nabil toured the UK and the US for four years starting in 1997: Hello Arabs of London and Divided Hearts.
POST-SHOW PANELLISTS
Nabil Sawalha, actor, writer and director
Dina Mousawi, London-based Iraqi actor and theatre-maker
Lara Sawalha, Jordanian- British actor
31 AUGUST 2020 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, 8pm GMT+3
Oranges and Stones - Ashtar Theatre
Join us to watch “Oranges and Stones” by Palestinian Ashtar Theatre - the story of an impoverished refugee man who arrives from Europe after World War I under the guise of the “Balfour Declaration” and settles in a native woman’s home. “Oranges and Stones” is a play without words, told totally through physical action and original music. It portrays the reality of persecution in Palestine, and travels in time to seventy years of occupation and settlement.
POST-SHOW PANELLISTS
Iman Aoun, actor, Artistic Director of Ashtar Theatre
Edward Muallem, actor, General Director of Ashtar Theatre
Mojisoba Adebayo, poet, playwright, director
Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur for Palestinian Human Rights
14 september 2020 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, 8pm GMT+3
REVENGE - LAURA URIBE & Juan Carlos Saavedra
Revenge is a documentary piece about the violence that two children experienced within their family unit. It is a journey towards memory and identity where, starting from the self, the gaze unfolds towards the violence that we experience in Mexico. This work seeks to wonder; What leads us to be violent? Is violence inherited or learned? Created and performed by Laura Uribe and Juan Carlos Saavedra.
POST-SHOW PANELLISTS
Laura Uribe, Mexican performing artist; director, playwright, performer, teacher and stage researcher.
Juan Carlos Saavedra, Mexican actor, director and executive producer.
Luz Emilia Aguilar Zinser, journalist, theatre critic and researcher.