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We are the Children of the Camp
Production
of Al-Rowwad Theatre - Aida Camp
Summary of the Play:
Scene
1: Children playing
Scene
2: Lord Balfour Promise
from the British government for the establishment of a home for the Jews in
Palestine
Scene
3: 1948 war. The flea
and resistance of Palestinian people
Scene
4: The road of exile and
refuge. A short video projection of real images of the exude
Scene
5: The refugees speak:
They were forced to leave their villages; they became refugees in Arab and
foreign countries, living in refugee camps. What would their parents say to
them?
They are then transformed into their parents, 50 years after evoking
their villages of origin. They recall some of the 531 villages destroyed or
transformed into settlements by the Israeli occupation army. They evoke the
massacres against Palestinians committed by the Haganah and Stern groups.
Then they transform back to their own present
Then they transform into the future: What would they say to their own
children? We are refugees living in refugee camps in our own country: 22 camps
in west bank, 8 in Gaza strip, 12 in Lebanon, 10 in Jordan, 10 in Syria and
others.
The children then sing “We are the Children of the Camp” We shall
never forget.
Scene
6: At the school. The
student evoke that they are refugees, they retrace the history of their
families, and express their rights as children to have the same rights, schools,
clean environment, to play and learn and be free as other children of the world.
They talk about the school and their teachers and what they say to them,
those who love and those who do not. They talk about their dreams and the dreams
of their parents concerning them. They sing a short song asking their teachers
to teach them history, to tell them where their country is, to confirm that they
are Palestinians, but with no country.
They evoke the silence of the world against what happened to them, and
what the Israeli occupation has done against them and their country.
Scene
7: Children begin by
playing; their play is interrupted by a strange atmosphere, which is transformed
into Intifada where they mime scenes of throwing stones and falling in martyrs.
Ending with an under curfew. A short video film of real images of the Intifada
is projected.
The martyrs speak and confirm their rights in their land and say: there
we had a garden, olive trees uprooted, graves of our grandparents, there we used
to play, there were our schools... there we used to play, dance sing, laugh and
cry, here was our life...
Scene
8: Scene about the media
and the news, the big titles about peace process and negotiations, Israeli and
Palestinians accuse each other for the failure of talks, news about artists, all
under the patronage of Coca Cola.
Scene
9: Checkpoints. A glance
on some of the problems that Palestinians face of interdiction to pass without a
permit.
Scene
10: A scene of 4 women:
A mother, a wife, a daughter and a sister manifest, and demonstrate evoking the
martyrs, prisoners, refugees and exiled.
Scene
11: A folk dance
(Pigeons fly)
Scene
12: Some reflections on
the peace process of today