{"id":50510,"date":"2015-05-13T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T21:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/?p=50510"},"modified":"2015-05-13T00:01:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T21:01:56","slug":"the-siege-uk-tour-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/2015\/05\/the-siege-uk-tour-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Siege UK tour begins!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 13,\u00a0The Freedom Theatre\u00a0<\/em>begins its first-ever tour of Britain with a performance\u00a0of The Siege<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>at The Lowry<\/a> in Manchester.<\/p>\n

The Siege<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>is\u00a0an artistic reflection on a crucial event in recent Palestinian\u00a0history,\u00a0the Israeli army\u2019s 39-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during the height of the second Intifada. While the dramatic scenes of the 2002 siege made headlines worldwide, those trapped inside the church were not heard. With\u00a0The Siege<\/a>, <\/em>The Freedom Theatre\u00a0tells the story from the perspective of fighters, clergy and civilians who lived through those fateful 39 days.<\/p>\n

In a highly pressurised situation where choices become about life and death, the characters in The Siege<\/a><\/em> are forced to reflect on the moral and ethical implications of their actions and decisions. Through these characters, the play raises\u00a0discussion on the consequences of\u00a0lengthy oppression\u00a0and the complexities of\u00a0the wider political and social context in which the siege of the Church of the Nativity took place.<\/p>\n

The UK tour of The Siege<\/em><\/a> includes a\u00a0string of performances in ten\u00a0locations across Britain, among them the\u00a0Battersea Arts Centre<\/a>\u00a0in London,\u00a0The REP<\/a>\u00a0in Birmingham,\u00a0Nottingham Playhouse<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Tron<\/a>\u00a0in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Receiving outstanding\u00a0reviews during its West Bank run,\u00a0The Siege<\/em><\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0gained national media attention in the UK ahead of the tour and\u00a0sparked discussion, with prominent artists such as Mark Rylance, Samuel West, Miriam Margolyes, Mark Wright, Caryl Churchill, Howard Brenton, Ken Loach and Mark Thomas showing support for The Freedom Theatre and\u00a0freedom of expression for Palestinian artists generally.\u00a0Read the statement by\u00a0Artists for Palestine UK here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Performances of\u00a0The Siege<\/em><\/a>\u00a0will be accompanied by post-show discussions as well as workshop programmes, screenings\u00a0and live events, with the aim of encouraging cross-cultural dialogue around notions of freedom, justice and equality. “I hope it will be a two-way experience”, says Nabeel Al-Raee, co-creator of The Siege<\/em>. “The greatest thing for us is to meet people face to face and discuss our artistic project, as well as our lives.”<\/p>\n

Tour dates and details: www.thefreedomtheatre.org\/the-siege<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support The Siege UK tour TODAY, May 13, and the donation will be matched by GlobalGiving! Read more<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Follow the tour:
\nTwitter:\u00a0@Freedom_Theatre<\/a>,\u00a0#TheSiege<\/a>
\nwww.facebook.com\/thefreedomtheatre<\/a>
\nwww.thefreedomtheatre\/the-siege<\/a><\/p>\n

For further contact: media@thefreedomtheatre.org, +970(0)599536242.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 13,\u00a0The Freedom Theatre\u00a0begins its first-ever tour of Britain with a performance\u00a0of The Siege\u00a0at The Lowry in Manchester. The Siege\u00a0is\u00a0an artistic reflection on a crucial event in recent Palestinian\u00a0history,\u00a0the Israeli army\u2019s 39-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during the height of the second Intifada. While the dramatic scenes of the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-theatre-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}