Unforeseen - War Stories

I'd seen Unforeseen - War Stories advertised and the idea of forum theatre interested me greatly, particularly with the exchange that was going to be taking place between AZ Theatre in London and Theatre For Everybody (TFE) in Gaza.

I'd assumed it would be an improv session that bounced back and forth over Skype. It turns out, not. Which now, thinking about the regular power cuts in Gaza seemed a bit of a foolish assumption. The piece began with a series of still images depicting words we associate with war: dislocation, realising, resisting and so on. Director Jonathan Chadwick then picked apart the still images, describing how they had arrived at their artistic decisions, what story each tableau was telling. He then proceeded to invite the audience to change the things that suggested war in each tableau to instead suggest peace; smiling faces, dancing and togetherness. I am sure that I understand the message that Jonathan was trying to get across but to many in the audience, the first part of the performance was more a dissection of theatre than a dissection of war. It seemed self-indulgent and inappropriate. Although in a 2 day workshop - what more did we expect?

The second part of the piece moved to readings of an email exchange between Jonathan and Gazan health professionals. The emails began to satisfy the feeling we'd been missing I think. It described rumours of multi-drug resistance in Gazans, and a quest seeking powerful evidence to support such claims. Amidst the exchange came stats like, 90% of the water supply in Gaza is undrinkable, which began to arm me with the facts I thought I'd find more of throughout the evening. The emails only went so far though and we are yet to hear of any conclusive findings but it's good to know there is at least an avenue of conversation across the globe between those who care enough to try and prove these public health rumours.

The third part was perhaps the reason many of us had travelled, some from Leeds, to Rich Mix, to hear the work of the theatre group in Gaza and to join them in conversation. 

Each of the young Gazans had written a poem about war and peace and performed it to camera. Filmmaker Hazem Alabyad had then edited them together with war-filled images that directly contradicted the beauty of their words. He said, 'I wanted the message of hope to be as strong as the message of war'. And I think we saw that, not just in the poems but in our conversation with them.

The poems were intimately about peace, about their lives, about their dreams. You can watch the videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqzurFteRe9-rR0Ijt7NldkYJxE1NKYQi

The Q&A

aztheatre.org.uk

Questions began a little timidly amidst a luddite audience fearing Skype initiated communication, but the first question finally arrived: 

How does it feel to live in Gaza under siege?

'My parents saw Jordan and Egypt. I have only ever seen Gaza. People ask me what it's like but I have only ever seen Gaza.'

And it's true, how would we know how good, bad, fun, boring, beautiful or unbearable something or somewhere is, if it is all we have ever known? With this answer, they'd set their self-awareness in stone and the floor opened up a little.

So why did you make the videos - what did you get from it?

'It shaped me into someone new' said a TFE rep. 
He shared with us that the video helped him to express his 'other self'. I can identify with this, performing (particularly spoken word) gives you a chance to reflect on who you are and channel your feelings in ways you wouldn't normally explore. It makes you think about things you think of every day, in a different light.

aztheatre.org.uk

One of the girls amongst the group took this further and said, 'it introduced me to drama as education, I'd never thought about it like that before'. 
Drama has been a huge part of my education and this realisation really spoke to me. Self-expression has been a part of who I am, through performance arts, writing and media and I think it really helped me to find peace in who I am. I totally understood her revelation and the impact it might have. 

Jonathan then sprang into action to let them know that the videos gave us, in this small space in Shoreditch, hope. It met with the response, 'Hope comes from the humblest of places...huh?'

They were testing us, challenging us to challenge our views about them - not to limit our expectations or underestimate them and the test continued...

usa.chinadaily.com.cn - Gaza sea shore

A member of the UK audience asked them: 
But how do you stay motivated?

They replied 'Everyone has a dream - I am living the same as you. My rights, my dreams, Israel limits everything, so we can create hope from anything'. 

Who are we to assume life there is hopeless? No-one. Yet TFE remain aware of their audience.

(Speaking about the Skype screen) 'This is a window to let the light through. It's tough, we still have hope because we know that outside Gaza there is this world that believes in us'.

And they do. They really do. 

es.klear.com - Gaza City

Taking it further - challenging us to see Gaza in another light, to see past the news reels and destruction, a TFE rep said:

'We Gazans cling to any slice of hope. The blockade, the siege, it's boring to me. We want to paint the picture of the beauty of Gaza.  Beautiful places and culture in Gaza that we want to convey'.

A culture we only caught a glimpse of, but really felt a sense of. If you didn't click the link to watch the videos above, then go back and see for yourselves.

youtube.com

Then followed a very clear message to anyone who would try to stand in the way of their project to reach out to the world - although with connotations spreading much further than the rooms we found ourselves in. When asked 'Are you not scared your messages will be censored?'. The reply simply came:

'It will not stop us.'

The TFE team were of course a lot like any other drama group, they had the class clown (who never failed to let us forget how cold it was there), the confident ones, the shy ones - we were even treated to a rap of a Shakespearean sonnet! It was like hanging out with familiar friends, friends who were sharing a very powerful message with the world. Messages that say we are just like you, do not underestimate us, do not assume we do not know hope.

When asked their final question, 'what is freedom to you?' - the most powerful answer of the evening came:
'We will not define freedom until we get it'

And why would you? How could you? 

With Thanks to Theatre For Everybody and AZ Theatre. Rich Mix, 2016.