Written by Jackie Lubeck
Directed by Jan Willems, Daniel  Van Klaveren & Manal Barakat

For these Summer Games of 2011, Jackie Lubeck has written a collection of four plays with the cover title “Entanglement.” The plays were written in the spirit of Gaza during the year where much of the population was concerned, also confused, about the future, of their work, their movement, and about the overall political situation. This was the starting point.

As a result, the four plays that were written looked at different groups within the population and how they got through a given day. In “The Grandfathers” we meet the oldest of our population, those men between 90-105 who still have something to say and who know the country from top to bottom. In “The Mothers” we find a group of all ages of women, from the pregnant new wife to the older woman whose 12 children have left the country. In “The Brothers” we hear from the male teenagers who are ready to fight anything, including each other, these boys who are the warriors at this age, regardless of the subject. And then in “The Sisters” we watch the youngest and most vulnerable ot the population and that is the little girls. The relations between these 16 people are the secret of the writer and provide a game for the many kids who saw more than one play and who tried to match up the families.

“The Grandfathers”

Three sprite old men, with springs on their feet, and variations on what goes into making breakfast, meet every day in the courtyard between their houses. They know each other since forever and the morning breakfast ritual is how they start each day. On this particular morning, there is knock on the door. The visitor is from the municipality and has been given the task of counting the population. The grandfathers are all to happy to tell him about everyone who lives in the area and they insist on everyone including the living, the deceased, those abroad, all the children born, all the experiences. It is a confrontation between a municipal clerk and the soul of Palestine.

Group 1
Rafat  (Abu Ahmad) – Hassan Al-Najjar
Ashraf (Abu Mohammed) – Isamil Dahalan
Abu Ihab – Mohammed Al-Khateeb
Hissi (Abu Ahmad) – Saeid Al-Khawalda
Actor-in-Audience – Aahed Braika

Supervisor – Manal Barakat
Technician –  Salah Abu Lebda
Loading – Yasir Abu Al-Aata

Group 2
Rafat  (Abu Ahmad) – Yousif Arafa
Ashraf (Abu Mohammed) – Ramez Nassar
Abu Ihab – Sharaf Al-Aydi
Hissi (Abu Ahmad) – Sami Abu Skheil
Actor-in-Audience – Raed Abu Shammala

Supervisor – Omar Al-Yasgi
Technician  – Hazem Salem
Loading – Ali Al-Madhoun

Group 3
Rafat  (Abu Ahmad) – Mohammed Khader
Ashraf (Abu Mohammed) – Ibrahim Nafesh
Abu Ihab – Hassan AL-Akhrass
Hissi (Abu Ahmad) – Mohammed Saleh Abu Ghali
Actor-in-Audience – Mohammed Aadel Abu Ghali

Supervisor – Sameh Al-Saftawi
Technician  – Ihab Abu Salman
Loading – Wael Al-Masri

Overall Artistic Supervision
Jan Willems, Rafat Al Aydeh, Liesbeth Coltof, Dennis Meyer

Educational Program
Jan Willems, Daniel  Van Klaveren & Manal Barakat
Rosa Fontein & Lotte Kanters

Voice Training
Bart Kiene

Design and Technical Team
Riyad Al Akhras
Ashraf Sirhan
Ahmad Qadada
Mohammed Nofel
Ola Salem
Wessam Al-Dirawi
Ward Nassrallah

Administration
Randa Muhanna
Amal Abu Dawoud
Maryam Enaia
Kamal Shoublaq
Rawia Mushtaha
Hadeel Sous
Francis Tams
&
UNRWA