Play: The Thing
Palestinian National Theatre productions
Written by: Ghassan Kanafani
Director: Yacoub Ismail
Music: Mustafa al Kurd
Actors: Emad Mize’ro, Faten Khoury, Adel Tartir,
Taher Najeeb, Ra’eda Andon
A strange thing happens to a man who lacks
everything: he is always in debt and cannot repay his debts. He loves a
woman but cannot marry her, she gets pregnant and he can’t afford to pay
for an abortion. Then, suddenly, the thing falls in his hands. It is strange,
enticing, and valuable. He refuses all temptations to give it up, even
when he sees that “thing” transformed into a hat on the heads of others,
even though he feels that it comes from inside the head rather than outside
it. He then realizes that this rare alien thing cannot live in a world
ruled by materialism. This play is adapted from Ghassan Kanafani’s play
“The Hat and the Prophet” which is an intellectual play where Kanafani
reveals the estrangement of the intellectual in a materialistic world.
Jerusalem 20, 21, 22 August 19:30, The Palestinian National Theatre
Exhibition: Michael Najjar
Michael Najjar was born in Akka in 1932, and
emigrated to Beirut in 1948 where he specialized in Arabic Calligraphy.
In 1983 he left to Belgium where he studied at the Arts Academy in Bruxelles.
Najjar is considered one of the few artists who have transported the spirit
of Arabic calligraphy to the space of the painting. He established “Arabesque”
art gallery in Bruxelles, and has exhibited in cities all over the world.
El-Bireh, exhibition runs until 31 August, Baladna Cultural Center
Exhibition: Khaled Hourani
A young Palestinian artist, Hourani experiments
with colors and materials in a collage reflecting his “predicament and
swinging moods facing the scene, the collage of TV images, Atlantic planes,
the hunger in Somalia, Palestinian misery, the suffering of love in an
Argentinean soap opera, and the distress of sex over the mobile phone.”
In his work, Hourani tries to evade the determinism of colors and set images,
in an attempt to hide the secrets of his inner life, at the same time exposing
them in an explosion of colors and images and old notebooks. His abstract
work is a rebellion against the direct political or folkloric statements
that have generally characterized the work of Palestinian artists, as a
result of the political struggle of which they have been a part for many
decades. Ramallah, 21-31 August, Khalil Sakakini Center
Film: Tales from Arab Detroit
A fascinating look at Arab American life and
identity perception through the visit of an Egyptian poet to perform the
famous Bani Hilal epic, and the reactions it sparks within the Detroit
Arab American community, the largest in the US. Ramallah, 26 August 20:00,
Khalil Sakakini Center