The Freedom Theatre, a leading theatre company based in the Jenin Refugee Camp, occupied Palestine, will bring its brand new production The Siege to the Tron as part of its first ever UK tour. This is the first opportunity for UK based theatre audiences to see the work of this renowned company that has travelled across the world and uses theatre as a form of generating cultural resistance as well as providing opportunities to create a vibrant and creative artistic community in the northern part of the West Bank.
The Siege is inspired by the true events of a group of fighters, now exiled across Europe, who were leading protagonists in an event that with time has taken on almost mythical proportions, yet their accounts have never before been told. Set in the Spring of April 2002 in Bethlehem, a group of armed men seek sanctuary in the Church of the Nativity, one of the world's holiest sites, as the Israeli army closes in. Along with the fighters are some 200 priests, nuns and civilians. The siege lasts for 39 days, paralyzing the centre of Bethlehem. While the world is watching, the fighters are faced with the question of whether to struggle to the end or to surrender. No matter what they choose, they will have to leave their families and their homeland behind forever.
The Siege will be directed by Palestinian theatre director Nabil Al-Raee (artistic director for The Freedom Theatre) and Zoe Lafferty, a British theatre director who is the Associate Director for the company. They previously collaborated on Sho Kman?, a critically acclaimed production that opened in Jenin and went on to tour to Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria.
The piece will be developed and devised by The Freedom Theatre actors, a unique ensemble who use culture as a form of resistance and who have grown up during the second Intifada and lived under occupation their whole lives.
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