About the production

Palestinian theatre company ShiberHur and the Young Vic came together in a unique collaboration to produce an astonishing new play by Amir Nizar Zuabi [the director of ‘Alive from Palestine’].
In 2010, Middle East peace negotiations are deadlocked. This powerful story – told from the Palestinian point of view – deals with the historic circumstances behind that deadlock. It is available to visit your city direct from touring Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps in Galilee and the West Bank, as well as a rapturously sold out season in London at the Young Vic.
The play will be performed in English and Arabic (with surtitles in the local language)

The story

January 1948. The British Mandate is ending. The United Nations vote on who will control what part of Palestine. In a village in Galilee, Ali has a burning passion for Nada. But he is in despair. Her father won’t let them marry because Ali’s brother Yusuf is ‘odd’ with his own eccentric, child like point of view.
War begins. The villagers become refugees. They mourn the loss of the land they have worked for generations. Their reality is transformed. Chaos.
Ali and Yusuf set off in search of Nada. They find themselves struggling through a whirlwind of history: the past, the present, the future.
In the end, the secret of Yusuf”s ‘oddness’ is revealed. Amidst profound guilt and forgiveness, the search for love and security continues.
‘I am Yusuf and this is my Brother’ is a deeply poetic journey through the extremes of loyalty and desire on one of the permanent frontlines of the contemporary word.

This production opened at the Al Midan Theatre, Haifa, on 24 September 2009, then toured to towns and villages in Galilee and the West Bank. It opened at the Young Vic, London on the 19th January 2010.

www.shiberhur.org
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