Following his performance of multi-award winning Bahraini poet Qassim Haddad’s masterpiece Chronicles of Majnun Layla, Amer Hlehel, will be in conversation about this incredible retelling of the classic love story with live music. The story of love, passion, eroticism and unfulfilled desire is radically reinterpreted with an original soundscore. Join us immediately after the show for this fascinating discussion.
A story of love, passion and unfulfilled desire told with live music. Often described as the Arab Romeo and Juliet, Amer Hlehel (★★★★★ Taha, Young Vic) transforms poet Qassim Haddad’s powerful story into a live experience. Moving between Arabic and English and reinterpreted with live music, this is an epic drama not to be missed.
Palestinian/Danish/US-based artist Mette Loulou von Kohl grapples with her own position on racism, orientalism, sexuality, resistance and activism in No One Likes An Ugly Revolutionary, while Lebanese writer, actor and spoken word artist Dima Mikhayel Matta draws a powerful picture of her queer existence in relation to Beirut in This Is Not A Memorized Script, This Is A Well-Rehearsed Story.
Following their double bill, Palestinian-Danish artist Mette Loulou von Kohl and Lebanese writer, performer and academic Dima Mikkhayel Matta will be joined by drag artist The Nightbus (Shaz Blakefield) and writer, performer director and drag artist Amrou Al-Khadi for a panel on queerness in performance by an incredible group of Arab artists.
The conversation will be chaired by Shereen Zoumot.
Conjuring up complex and wondrous images and optical illusions, ēvolvō follows a journey from idyllic nature in the mountains of Lebanon to the busy street-life of Beirut. A strange creature invades the city: is it an ancient monster or an image of the city drowning in plastic pollution? This is a magic visual delight filled with wonder and surprises.
Conjuring up complex and wondrous images and optical illusions, ēvolvō follows a journey from idyllic nature in the mountains of Lebanon to the busy street-life of Beirut. A strange creature invades the city: is it an ancient monster or an image of the city drowning in plastic pollution? This is a magic visual delight filled with wonder and surprises.
Fifty-something Lebanese performer Hanane Hajj Ali jogs every day to avoid osteoporosis, obesityand depression. Her route takes her through her own personal spaces of Beirut, revisiting roles, characters, desires, aspirations and disappointments along the way. Alone on a bare stage, Hanane – woman, wife and mother – compares herself with Medea figures: the mythological and everyday Beirut woman. Jogging | جوغينغ is a meditation on motherhood and the ever-changing city of Beirut.
Forty-year-old Syrian cinematographer Jamal is obsessed with the idea of losing his past. Confronted with the notion that places from his memory have been abandoned or destroyed, he weaves together fragments of narratives into a reflection of how we can possibly understand the present. Under a Low Sky | تحت سماء واطئة is a reflection on Syria’s past in an attempt to understand the present
Want to make theatre?
Join us for an interactive theatre-making workshop led by important Beirut-based actor, writer and activist, Hanane Hajj Ali.
Hear about Hanane’s experiences making work, share your own and experience the power of arts.
What does it mean to make work in Europe as an Arab artist? And what does that mean in these ‘interesting’ times? This panel gathers together some of the most exciting Arab/British artists making work in Europe for a discussion of the opportunities, risks and experiences of writing in Europe.
An award-winning show from Iraqi theatre-maker Enkidu Khaled. Khaled invites the audience to join him in creating a new performance each night, drawing on personal experience. Part lecture, part performance, part workshop, Working Method moves seamlessly from the lightest conversation to emotional punch.
A day of playreadings from the Arab world. Be the first to see four new plays from Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.
Tickets for the playreadings can be bought individually or as part of a full day package.
Token Toni loves a bitta bashment and only dates Black/Brown womxn, my barber holds the cure to my lesbian urges and straight women are like junk food. Written/performed by Mika Johnson, backdropped by poetry, movement and original beats. Co-produced by HighTide.
From childhood co-stars, through teenage rebellion, a moving and powerful autobiographical account about growing up queer in the mid-noughties, finding yourself, and losing a friend. Written/performed by Teddy Lamb with an original pop music score. Co-produced by HighTide.
For each new production at the Gate Theatre audiences are invited into the rehearsal room to get an insight into the early stages of making each show.
Fascism. Resistance. Apathy.
Mephisto [Rhapsodie] is a searingly contemporary response to Klaus Mann’s banned, and fiercely political cult novel. Samuel Gallet’s urgent new play asks, what would you sacrifice to do the right thing?
This is a play about the future. But we know plays don’t change the world. Right?
A hopeful, funny and courageous one woman show about dreaming that will end all your dystopian nightmares.
Leave a life. Blow everything up. What few people understand is that you leave one life to start another. This dizzying, fluid and haunting adaptation of Luiselli’s award winning novel, explores whether our identities are more permeable than we imagine.
France. Sometime in the 1500s. Boy meets boy.
A queer futuristic adventure story about love, activism and training for a revolution.
This language carries its cure.
Nobel Prize-winning poet, Derek Walcott, reimagines Homer’s Iliad on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. Crossing time and space, this epic drama explores the wounds of slavery and the redemptive power of culture and heritage.
Directed by Elayce Ismail (Nanjing, Shakespeare’s Globe), and developed with Paterson Joseph.
