A few years ago, I caught eye of a play title written by the poet Yihya Jaber “Smile you are Lebanese”. When I read the play I smiled…I smiled because I’m Palestinian, and because the human concern is the same, with some small differences here or there. Mainly because the play is about war and what remains after it, and about love’s mischievousness in the war memory with all the courage, irony and bitterness. So I asked myself: why couldn’t this play be Palestinian? Don’t we live today in a state of mischievousness? Of waiting? Of loss and madness? Of black comedy? If not, what do we call this life where every morning we breathe its bitterness? And which has no place for love or lovers. The siege we live in is not only the geographical one, or the occupation practices and its degradation of all morals and principles, but also the siege of the human, his hopes, aspirations and vision of future.

Today, after years of living this bitter situation and life, I took the responsibility of rewriting this play with a pure Palestinian perspective; it is about life, which I don’t know how to call it because it’s mixture of many names. I was seeking to open the unresolved files that the Palestinian society suffers from so that we can find material for criticism and dialogue and that we really smile.

A play by: Yihya Jaber

Adapted and Directed by: George Ibrahim
Cast: Kamel El Basha, Georgina Asfour, Mahmoud Awad,
Husam Abu Eisheh
Assistant Director: Manal Awad
Light Designer: Muaz Jubeh

Music:
Composer: Jameel Al-Sayyeh
Musicians: Jameel Al-Sayyeh, Basel Zaied
Lyrics: George Ibrahim
Singers: Jameel Al-Sayyeh, Goerge Ibrahim, Basel Zaied
Recording: Studio LOGO  

Set:
Designer: Majed Zobaidi
Production:  Samer Al-Salhi
Dance Choreographer: Nicholas Rowe
Costumes: Nasefeh Habash
Photographer: Osama Silwadi
Poster Designer: Ramzi Al-Taweel