Fostering Collective Identity through Theatre

The edited volume The Freedom Theatre: Performing Cultural Resistance in Palestine illustrates the theatre’s history, vision and work through a series of interviews with key people who were associated or working with The Freedom Theatre (TFT), before and after its co-founder’s assassination. It is an outcome of a process that ran over a year and a half which sprung from the realisation that TFT had never told its story in its own words. The book encapsulates the lifespan and growth of TFT from its nascent stage to the present when it has grown to be one of the most important cultural centres in Palestine and the world. The volume is a personal account and perspective from within TFT, an internal process of reflection that critically analyses the work and the context in which it takes place. Although the book is well-documented and provides insights into the everyday world of people living in Palestine, at times it gets repetitive and the ideas are not coherent, thereby disrupting the flow. The interviews are powerful and insightful while a few seem to have been added just to be more inclusive.

The Freedom Theatre