Sarab by the Palestinian Circus

Arts Council of Ireland

Production Team:
Redirected by Mohammad Abu Taleb
Performers: Mohammad Najm, Wajdi Khalid, Julia Rafidi, Mais Rafeedie, Nouraldin Samaro
Costumes: Asma Anabtawi
Photographer: Malak Altakruri
Music: Mohammad Azzeh

The tour in Ireland is produced by Doulab for Circus and Dance.

About the Palestinian Circus: The Palestinian Circus was established in 2006 to bring circus to people in Palestine. Circus builds powerful creative identities through value-based education. It offers young people the voice to speak up about their daily life, their struggle for freedom and their immense desire to live a dignified life in their homeland. Their tour in Ireland is produced by Doulab for Circus and Dance, whose director was one of the original founders of PCS.

Arab Hyphen –
“There are several wrenching scenes that are best not to spoil, especially one using a persistent symbol in the show — the idea that a refugee’s world, all their possessions, has to be carried in their luggage, that there is nowhere to go back to.”

“…captured the ludicrous and endless bureaucratisation that is part of being a refugee. This scene is perhaps the one that best captures the sarab (mirage) of the title, the false promise of finding sanctuary in a world that is not interested in providing that sanctuary. Each of the papers used in the scene, it was revealed in the Q and A session, was the story of a refugee, a story that will not be heard. And that was a recurring theme holding the scenes together — the idea that this experience of fleeing violence being both a shared one, but also very individual, and the impossibility of telling every one of those stories.”

Circus Diaries –
“The company combines skills in acrobatics, juggling and aerial in a series of dynamic tableaux that just keep on coming. There is no dramatic climax, but an ongoing slew of traumas whose power over us is their unrelenting, merciless tide. Internal and external pressures bubble over in small personal disagreements and gargantuan, blanketing attacks of bombs and bullets.”