Iman’s rehearsal

Iman and Yasmin arrived with a script for the Dear Children, Sincerely performance comprised of three intertwined testimonies of elders which had been taken in Palestine for concomitant projects produced by Ashtar Theatre. Working with a University of Essex student performer, Jack Parker, the rehearsal process was one of intense discussion and time to absorb the nuance of the events in the script. Because of the geo-political complexity of the incidents detailed in the testimonies, from the Mandate for Palestine, to the United Nations Partition Plan, and then to the Arab-Israeli war, the Nakba and beyond, there was much historical, political and cultural context to impart and comprehend in the script.

We see that the rehearsal process here is analogous to a number of testimony performances, where there is a process of reading, discussion, unpicking and unpacking the lines before working out the relationships and interactions between the speakers on stage, and the ‘rules’ of engagement with the audience. Jack was deeply inspired by his work with Iman, and was in thrall to her articulacy and drive, and in turn, Iman supported Jack’s professional development by inviting him to take part in a theatre festival at Ashtar in Palestine.