A vibrant and haunting theatre piece, Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea promises to transport the audience directly to Gaza to experience what happened during the recent Israeli military assault. It seeks to create a highly atmospheric fusion of moving personal testimonies with searing film images and soundscape bearing witness to the dignity, courage and suffering of the people of Gaza.
Writer/director Justin Butcher describes Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea as: “A ritual. A requiem. An act of mourning. A space and a moment – set aside from people’s busy email-driven, mobile phone buzzing, credit-crunch anxious daily lives – which people can enter, in which they can hear and see enacted the true stories of those in Gaza, simply staged, subtly supported with appropriate music and lighting.”
Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea is an artistic collaboration between Justin Butcher (Scaramouche Jones, The Madness Of George Dubya), Palestinian writer/director/choreographer Ahmed Masoud (founder of Palestinian National Dance Company Al Zaytouna, director of Ila Haifa), internationally renowned artist and designer Jane Frere (Return Of The Soul – The Nakbah Project) and award-winning political journalist/film-maker Zia Trench (founder of Zeitgeist Theatre Company).
Performed by a Palestinian and British cast, Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea comes as a response to the human slaughter which led many onlookers to despair. In spite of the constraints, people inside Gaza have contributed photos, video footage and testimonies for this production.