Tales of a City by the Sea by Samah Sabawi has received critical acclaim in its touring and several stagings in Palestine and Australia. It is an eye- opening play based on real-life experiences from the 2008-2009 Israeli siege on Gaza. It follows a long-distance love story, an illegal underground journey, a tragic death of a family, and the unconditional urge to continue to find hope within an open-air prison. By uniting poetry, romance, comedy, and tragedy, the play explores the love between those who have choices, and those who do not. It raises the question of the importance of sustaining one’s heritage and identity. The playwright, Samah Sabawi, expresses how this hour-long journey is inspired by “the strength and defiance of ordinary people in Palestine, who despite the horrific war, siege, and brutality of the Israeli Occupation, still insist that life is worth living and love is worth celebrating.”
The Canadian premiere of the play was directed by Rahaf Fasheh with the support of Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto (U of T) and was staged at the Centre’s Robert Gill Theatre in December 2018.[1]
Rahaf and I had a conversation about this experience:
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