Gaza’s theatre actors are taking stories of siege, bereavement and displacement on to makeshift stages while living with the same dangers and shortages beyond them. Their work has become a way to turn testimony into performance, and to give performers and audiences space to confront a shared trauma.
One recent production, '50 Minutes in Gaza', began as a theatrical writing workshop in April 2026 with support from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. It later toured Gaza from late July through August, appearing in Daraj, Deir el-Balah, Nuseirat and Khan Younis.
For 50 minutes, its cast performed lives shaped by experiences they had brought into the theatre. Qaddoura became a doctor unable to save his son. Ouda played Haneen, a woman giving birth under siege.
The production places actors in a difficult double role. They rehearse scenes of destruction and displacement while confronting material scarcity and real threats themselves. The performances therefore serve as artistic work and as a means of endurance for people living through the conditions their characters describe.
A theatre maker said the production answered the destruction of Gaza’s theatres with a refusal to abandon performance: 'This performance was a message to the occupation that destroyed all of Gaza's theatres: Theatre cannot be destroyed'.
The theatre maker described the essential elements more simply: 'It requires theatre makers, writers and directors, and even if the halls are destroyed, we can perform in the street'.
Groups are working from community centres and improvised venues. Their narratives draw on restricted movement, intermittent electricity and the aftermath of military strikes. Local cultural non-governmental organisations support the work, alongside occasional limited funding from international arts programmes.
That support enables rehearsals and modest set construction despite shortages of material and frequent power outages. Productions address mourning, resilience and the psychological effects of prolonged conflict. They often include testimony from audience members who have experienced related hardship.
Actors and directors describe presenting such stories as a form of catharsis. The work also preserves cultural identity amid continuing adversity, offering a public space for accounts that might otherwise remain private.
Another performance initiative has been recorded in the documentary 'One More Show', co-directed by Egyptian Mai Saad and Palestinian Ahmed el-Danaf. Shot during the summer of 2024, it followed the daily life of the Free Gaza Circus.
'One More Show' was screened at the Cairo International Film Festival. Alongside theatre productions, it documents efforts to sustain performance in Gaza amid siege conditions, material scarcity, security threats and the loss of formal venues.
For the cast of '50 Minutes in Gaza', the production does not offer distance from the events it depicts. It gives form to personal accounts of conflict before audiences living through related losses. In that setting, theatre becomes a collective act of expression and a way to carry on amid siege, displacement and deprivation.
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