Handala: A Celebration of Palestine comes to Unites Solo’s 2024 Fall Festival after winning the Best Solo Performance Award at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe. Devised and performed by Myriam Ali-Ahmad, Handala shares stories and experiences from interviews Ali-Ahmad conducted with Palestinians to showcase the strength and beauty of Palestine and its people in a 70-minute performance.
We are introduced, firstly, to the idea of Palestine and of Palestinians that has become all too familiar: the suffering victims of bombings, shootings, and starvation as the cameras roll on and broadcast it to us in the States. Ali-Ahmad chooses to project a compilation of news coverage as her first character, an injured, face-obscured Palestinian, struggles to rest as a Western reporter describes his frail yet strong attempts to stand up with a condescending tone. The faceless Palestinian seems to want nothing to do with the media barrage that he is under. Through this interaction, distance is interposed between the media’s portrayal of Palestinians and the human beings who live in Palestine and whose stories we gather to hear.
The poetry in this show is transporting. Ali-Ahmad captures a trip over the wall, into Jerusalem, and back home with beautiful pacing and a brilliant command of language, highlighting the difference in perspective between a Palestinian boy and a former IDF soldier. Ali-Ahmad’s distinctions between characters are clever and clear, and their thoughts and speech are animated and lively, especially the elderly ones, who share their experiences of decades of apartheid. There is an insuppressible joy in this show, like a glass bubbling over, so elated to gather people together and share these moments that embody and celebrate Palestinian life.
The show resists most strongly the narrative of Palestinians as helpless, stateless, and nameless. Western media may report on the destruction and war crimes of the IDF and the suffering they cause, but the news can never make people understand the Palestinian perspective, the love they have for their land, their people, and their culture. Ali-Ahmad has focused her energies on preserving and platforming that culture in a truly mesmerizing and meaningful way. The final line of the show, “Maybe then I will show you my face,” evokes this message that it is a challenge for Westerners to earn an understanding of Palestine by genuinely experiencing and connecting with its stories and people.
Handala gives a meaningful experience with a people and a culture that cannot be erased; forces try as they might. Proceeds from the performance will be given to a Palestinian family in need of medical care.
“Handala: A Celebration of Palestine”
Written and performed Myriam Ali-Ahmad
Directed by Director: Becca Khalil & Mahmoud AboBaker
October 11 and 12, 2024
The 17th United Solo Festival at Theatre Row
The 17th United Solo Festival
September 24 – November 17, 2024
Theatre Row
410 West 42nd (btw 9th and 10th Avenue)
Rita Frances Welch is… Wait, who’s asking? There are a few answers depending on the context. Rita is A) A New York playwright, actor, and director, B) The owner of 5 discrete copies of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, C) A force of nature, controlled by the tides and called to by the wind, disappearing and returning like the seasons. More material than their author, Rita’s plays have been produced by The Tank, Theatre X, Playwrights Performance, and Rogue Theatre Festival. They hold a B.F.A. in Acting from Shenandoah Conservatory, during which they studied under LAByrinth Theater’s Martha Wollner and Padraic Lillis. Rita’s writing functions as an experiment- a combination of characters in the petri dish of their world, their personal challenges and delusions in a vacuum, isolating for every variable but one: Human nature, which reveals itself every time. ritafranceswelch.com
Comments