Members of West Cork for Palestine will be performing The Gaza Monologues during this year’s Skibbereen Arts Festival, where the performance is being directed by Skibbereen resident Nasser Swirki and features many local collaborators and artists.
Meeting with The Southern Star before rehearsals on Monday afternoon this week, Trish Edelstein, who is involved with the production and is also Nasser’s wife, gave an outline of what to expect.
The play was originally written in 2009, updated in 2024,and features personal stories of people from Gaza told through the mediums of spoken word, music, and audio visual installation by Tim Baier.
The Monologues are an original work by the Ashtar Theatre Collective based in Ramallah in Palestine; Nasser previously worked with Ashtar on the play I Am Jerusalem, a piece on the eponymous city, and has worked in the industry ‘all his life.’ He has been involved with theatre in Skibbereen with the last year and says working in West Cork has been ‘great, a beautiful experience’, recalling a short play he directed in the town, Matching Colours.
‘Nasser is good friends with the people in Ashtar’ said Trish, ‘and they do amazing work. And we though, look, why don’t we stage this and pay the copyright for it.’
‘It’s cross-community work, across disciplines, and with all this talent, it’ll be a good show. I think by coming to the show, it’s a form of solidarity. It’s a form of empathy, but the pieces are also beautifully written, and there is joy too, because music is joyful’.
The show is one hour long, and each monologue is about three minutes in length.
‘This is not a comedy, of course’ continues Trish, ‘but there’s a pathos there. They’re talking about everyday life. It’s not just about Gaza, but about hurt, and pain. We all experience it, this same drama. This pathos is another emotion.’
The play takes place on Wednesday July 30th at 8pm in the Town Hall, and all proceeds are going towards Red Crescent, Palestine Heirloom Heritage Seed Library, Palestine Local Seed Bank and Ashtar Theatre, Palestine.
West Cork for Palestine is a group made up of people local in the area who stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora. They hold regular events, marches and vigils across West Cork to advocate for peace and justice for the people of Palestine.
