PALART FESTIVAL 2026
PLEASANCE THEATRE | 23RD SEP - 3 OCT
PALESTINE ON STAGE - ROOTS, FREEDOM, FUTURE
PALART Collective returned for the fifth edition of PALART Festival, presenting its most ambitious season yet: eleven days of Palestinian theatre, comedy, music, visual art and design celebrating resilience, creativity and an unbreakable cultural spirit.
Bringing together artists and performers from across Palestine and the diaspora, the programme explored the breadth of Palestinian experience through sharp-edged humour, vivid storytelling, contemporary music and bold visions of the future.
For the first time, the festival brought four Palestinian theatre and comedy companies under one roof: El-Hakawati, Ashtar Theatre, The Freedom Theatre and Palestine Comedy Club. Across seven productions, the programme celebrated Palestinian creativity, preserved stories of the past and invited audiences to imagine the future.
The festival was made possible with the support of Amos Trust, Arts Council England, Amnesty International, Pleasance Theatre, Maqam Books and Aswatna Studio, alongside the artists, creative collaborators, volunteers and wider community who brought this year’s programme to life.
FULL THEATRE PROGRAMME
THE SHROUD MAKER
Hajja Souad is an 80-year-old Palestinian woman living on the besieged Gaza Strip. She knows business. For decades, she has survived wars and oppression by making shrouds for the dead.
A compelling black comedy that delves deep into the intimate life of ordinary Palestinians, the play weaves a highly distinctive path through Palestine’s turbulent past and present.
Written & Directed by Ahmed Masoud
RETURN TO PALESTINE
Return to Palestine follows Jad, an American-born Palestinian, on his first journey to Palestine. Seeking connection with his roots, he discovers a reality far removed from the one portrayed in the media.
Directed by Micaela Miranda and devised at The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp, the production was created through story-gathering with communities involved in The Freedom Theatre’s annual Freedom Ride, drawing on stories from Jenin, Fasayel, Dheisheh, Mufaqara and Gaza’s Jabalia Camp.
EL MANSHIYYEH
Samer Al-Saber’s El-Manshiyyeh takes audiences on a journey through time, memory and the Palestinian neighbourhood of El-Manshiyyeh.
Moving between three different periods - the life of the community before 1948, the displacement of 1948, and an imagined futuristic El-Manshiyyeh - the play brings Yaffa’s lost neighborhood back to life on stage.
A story of home, displacement, memory and hope.
Created by El-Hakawati
SAMI ABU WARDEH HATES YOU
A stand-up hour not to be missed, Sami Abu Wardeh Hates Youa asks is hate the sole domain of the far right, and can people who care start hating again? Can hate help us? And most importantly – can hate be funny?
Created by Sami Abu Wardeh
TWO NAMES, THAT MEET AND PART
Youssef, a young Palestian student newly arrived in New York, wants what so many before him have wanted: the American dream.
A good education, a new life, the girl. But America has other ideas. Haunted by the ghost of Rachel Corrie - the American activist killed in Gaza in 2003 - and pulled into campus protests that spiral beyond his control, Youssef finds that the life he came for keeps slipping out of reach.
Written by Tara Kelly
Created by The Freedom Theatre
FULL MUSIC PROGRAMME
2077 WHO WANTS TO SURVIVE
For Palestinians, the dystopian future imagined in 2077 feels disturbingly familiar. Walls. Checkpoints. Surveillance. Enclosed territories. Disappearing people. Technology used to identify, control and destroy human lives. What happens when the technologies that already watch us, track us and control our movement become fully autonomous?
2077 brings Palestinian experience into a science-fiction world where AI and technology decide who is valuable, who is dangerous, and who is expendable.
Created by Ashtar Theatre & Bridgeworks
HANNA SHAMMAS TAKES IT TO HEART
During a stay in hospital Hanna Shammas discovers he has had a hole in his heart since birth. With wry social commentary and hilarious self-reflection, while waiting for surgery he meets a bizarre bunch of hospital staff and patients and searches for the cause of the hole.
Is it the women in his life? His family? His ludicrously unsupportive psychologist? Or the insanity of his identity as a Palestinian living in Haifa?
Created by Palestine Comedy Club
ISAM ELIAS
Closing this year’s festival, Palestinian pianist, composer, singer and songwriter Issam Elias brought together live piano, synthesizers, electronic rhythms and vocals in a sound rooted in traditional Arab music and contemporary dance music.
Moving through Afro-Oriental grooves, dancehall and the rhythms of Middle Eastern dabkeh, his performance was driven by improvisation, movement and energy.
AHMED EID
One of the most exciting Palestinian artists of his generation, Ahmed’s music moved through stories of origin, resistance, hope and freedom.
His live solo show brought together groove-led organic melodies, guitar and percussion, offering a glimpse into his debut studio album, min ghazzeh la baghdad, min haifa la beirut.
SAIED SILBAK
Opening this year’s festival with an intimate Sing-a-long, Saied delivered a one-hour live performance built around music, collective singing and audience participation.
With no fixed running order, Saied shaped the evening through his own selection of songs, creating a shared musical experience between performer and audience.
Presented in collaboration with Aswatna Studio
Presented in collaboration with Aswatna Studio