Volunteer Recruitment Now OPEN!!!
The Suppliant Women
A community play for Palestine
CALLING VOLUNTEERS! Do you want to keep the voices of Gaza alive and heard?
The Suppliant Women play structure is based on an ancient Greek play by Aeschylus. We have developed a powerful play based on testimony from people currently in or newly arrived in Scotland from Gaza. Although the format is in Greek style, we have used the testimony and experiences of people of Gaza gathered recently to create the text and to pose the moral questions we must wrestle with. In this piece of theatre, we are creating a window into life in Gaza and for connection beyond words.
The piece is delivered by the Gazan, Palestinian, Arabic speaking communities themselves with support from local allies in Scotland. It is open to all who would like to help communicate greater understanding of the everyday experience of Gazan people as they survive the fear, inhuman conditions and destruction of their right to a cultural life.
A brief synopsis: In this promenade performance a group of women and children have fled their home which is under a brutal occupation, and are camped in the gardens of the Palace belonging to the Leader of a new Kingdom. They demand the Leader to take responsibility for their plight, as this Kingdom were contributors to the situation that created the war and intervene on their behalf. The King states that in a democracy he must ask the ‘People’ and invites everyone to his palace to listen to the women and children. A Doctor and a Journalist arrive from the wartorn country to give testimony on the desperate humanitarian situation they have left behind. A soldier from the occupying army arrives and threatens the ‘People’ with war in their own country if they choose to help the women.
Using performance techniques from Augusto Boal’s forum theatre, the ‘People’ consider what to do.
The Suppliant Women will be performed in the Storytelling Centre, and Trinity Apse, High St, Edinburgh on 14-17th May 2026.
JOIN US! ARE YOU WILLING TO REPRESENT THE VOICE OF GAZA?
DO YOU ENJOY ACTING OR PERFORMING? ARE YOU A MUSICIAN, A SINGER, A DANCER?
OR DO YOU JUST LOVE JOINING IN?
No previous performance or creative experience is required. Everyone Welcome..
YOUR COMMITMENT:
- The play will be shown across The Storytelling Centre, and Trinity Apse, High St, Edinburgh in mid-May 2025.
- You will be required to rehearse a min of one evening a week and Sunday afternoon collective sessions. Children under parental supervision.
- Intensive rehearsal during Easter Holidays mid-April. Evening and weekends mostly.
- We will be as flexible as possible with people’s availability during rehearsal period.
- Non-negotiable dates for performance 11-19 May
PLEASE CONTACT FARAH@ART27SCOTLAND.ORG AND JOIN INFO SESSIONS AND TASTER WORKSHOPS THROUGHOUT MARCH IN SUMMERHALL ARTS CENTRE.
(Info sessions Mar 8th 3-4pm, Mar 15th 3-4pm, 22 Mar 2.30-4.30
Taster workshops Mar 24 7-9pm, 28 Mar 2.30-4.30pm)
Our Right to a Cultural Life in Scotland
Adopting our mission from Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art27 Scotland stands as Scotland’s leading organisation dedicated to cultural rights. By fostering partnerships, commissioning projects, and empowering artists and communities, our work seeks to discuss the most urgent questions of our time. Through our creative practice we explore the significance of cultural rights, why they matter now more than ever and the means by which they can be actualised.
CULTURE=LIFE: Palestinian Artist Programme
To learn more about this project, please click the image below.
BLOOD RED LINES: a documentary in development
A feature length documentary which combines powerful personal testimony and a stage play to tell the truth about the British state’s complicity in sectarian killings during the Conflict in Ireland and continuing search for truth and justice.
It is a critical time in the search for truth and Justice in Ireland. In Britain, the government is trying to pass what is colloquially knowns as The Legacy Act, which would in effect prevent any further criminal prosecutions in relation to the Conflict in Ireland, and set up a body to collect information and promote reconciliation.
The film also aims to increase public understanding of the recent history of Ireland, North and South, and particularly the role of the British state in the conflict. Although the Denton report will finally put parts of the story told in the project in the public domain, this may be read by a small number of people and be quickly forgotten. By sharing the honest and raw lived experience of those who carry the memory of some of the worst atrocities, the film aims to stop that happening, and in so doing, deepen understanding and promote respect and tolerance between different groups and cultural identities in society, especially in relation to Britain and Ireland.
On Blood Red Lines: Thank you. A powerful performance. Brought back so many memories – the fear, the destruction of individuals, of families, of communities. The divisions, the support. the anger, the kindness, the despair, the laughter in spite of it all. And of course – the silence. The silence of death. The silence within families. The silence within communities. The silence of successive governments. Thank you for raising your voices, for telling your stories and the stories of those we lost. Remembering, too, Brendan Doherty. RIP. 24/2/1975