Director: Micaela Miranda
Playing in the PalArts programme as part of this year’s Shubbak Festival, Return to Palestine is compelling theatre. Following the journey of Jad, an American Palestinian, from his home to the West Bank, the 45-minute show is a feat of ingenuity and humour. Played on the smallest stage imaginable – itself a reference to the limited space that Palestinians have to call home – Jad’s tale, based on real-life experiences, is the very essence of community theatre.
It’s presented by Freedom Theatre, which once had a home in Jenin refugee camp, but in 2024, Israel’s continued attacks meant all the residents were displaced. For a while, the theatre travelled around in a car, with the creatives asking the people they met for their stories. These testimonies are then woven together to make plays which are written for the community. Outside of Palestine, these plays provide valuable insight into a country that is kept hidden from the rest of the world.
Return to Palestine is set before the current genocide, but Jad quickly begins to learn of the other attempts at ethnic cleansing that have occurred since 1948. His family – now living in the States – are delighted that he is going back to the homeland, a homeland he has never visited. Either they don’t know what has changed since they left the West Bank, or they don’t want to dampen Jad’s enthusiasm, but he’s woefully unprepared for his trip.
At the airport and on the plane, he’s treated as if he were a terrorist and spends six hours being interviewed by passport control in Tel Aviv. He can’t understand why Mahmoud, a family member in the West Bank, can’t pick him up from the airport. Jad seems to know nothing of walls and checkpoints and settlers’ villas. And once he reaches Jenin, he can’t sleep because of the constant gunfire.
This all sounds alarming stuff, but the seven actors bring so much comedy to Jad’s innocence that his adventures are rendered almost picaresque: Jad may be no rogue, but loveable Mahmoud definitely is. Using slickly choreographed movement and clowning – all performed in an impossibly tight space – Jad’s first days in Palestine are fully brought to life. Two musicians work hard to create a soundtrack of guns and snatches of celebratory songs.
Only at the end does Jad step out of the playing space, and the effect is devastating.
Runs until 1 June 2025
PalArts runs at Theatro Technis until 1 June 2025
Shubbak Festival runs until 15 June 2025
