Seattle Premiere
The play is set in an automobile repair shop in the mid-sized
city Herzliya. This Seattle premiere by Palestinian playwright Hanna Eady and Seattle-based playwright Edward Mast deftly dramatizes the tensions between a Palestinian and an Israeli Jew who might have known each other in the past. By the end of the play, both of their lives will be forever changed by the realities of present-day Israel.
The Return ran for 5 weeks to sold out houses.
December 1st show all ticket proceeds donated to the PCRF (The Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)
Lobby art gallery by Anyssa Mahmoud
This production was supported by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture's smART Ventures award.
Playwright’s Notes ملخص
Company Members; Hanna Eady and Edward Mast have been writing plays together since they met in Seattle in 1995. Their first collaboration was Sahmatah , a play drawn from testimonies by residents of one of the Palestinian villages destroyed during the founding of Israel in 1948. Other plays they have written together include Loved Ones: Families of the Incarcerated, Letters from Palestine in the Time of the Virus, and The Love Tunnel: A Comedy of Occupation. Their new play The Mulberry Tree will premiere in New York in February of next year.
When this play premiered in Haifa in 2014, Israel was bombing Gaza, as they are again while we prepare to open in Seattle. Our play contains no bombs, nor any tanks or checkpoints, but in Haifa and in Seattle, we have moved ahead with the conviction that gathering to think and feel together is valuable in a time of crisis. This crisis was not born yesterday or last month, but was born out of daily violence, decade upon decade, which some refuse to recognize as violence. THE RETURN is meant as a close-up of that experience that happens daily, beneath the headlines and all the noise.
Design
الفنانين
Set Design: John Vreeke, Hanna Eady
Grid Engineering: Will Hanna
Lighting Design: Adem Hayuu
Sound Design: RayMann Hill
Costumes: Beth Mahmoud-Howell & Anna Daines
Music by: Naseem Alatrash: Cellist & Composer
Bright Colors on a Dark Canvas Suite
Special Thanks
شكراً جزيلاً
For your generous donations to our important work:
Wajih Abu-rish, Ayman and Nadia Aldahleh , Samia Ashraf, Raja Atalla ,Majdi Badarin, Cindy and Larry Greenberg, Susan Koppelman, Laila El-Taji, Jeff Siddiqui. and several anonymous friends of Dunya.
*For keeping the lights on: Samia El-Moslimani and The Cherry Street Village community &, Company member Rita Zawaydeh and Salaam Cultural Museum our fiscal sponsor.
Lastly, to all of you, with your generous support our historic new theatre can continue to produce MENAA+, centered productions, keep ticket prices affordable and share our work with a broader audience.
