The Royal Court will stage a new play written by Palestinian writer Dalia Taha and inspired by recent events at the Sloane Square venue next year.
The piece, entitled Fireworks (Al’ab Nariya), will play in the venue’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from 12 February (press night 19 February) to 14 March.
The production will transport audiences to a Palestinian town where 11-year-old Lubna and 12-year-old Khalil are playing on the empty stairwell in their apartment block. As the siege outside intensifies, fear for their safety becomes as crippling as the conflict itself.
The drama, which is directed by Richard Twyman and explores how war fractures childhood, was first developed as part of the Royal Court’s 2013 International Residency. Playwright Taha returned to the project this summer in response to recent events in the region.
Talking about the play, the venue’s Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone said: “The play is about the children of the struggle and offers insight and a glimmer of hope where on a day to day basis there seems to be none. If the Royal Court is for anything, it is for this. To encourage writers to tell the hardest stories, to try to understand the world in which we live and in some small way contribute to the imagining of new possibilities. We are very grateful for Dalia’s courage.”
The production plays as part of the new 2014/15 season that also includes a mischievous adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits, a new collaboration by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, and Rory Mullarkey’s The Wolf From The Door starring Anna Chancellor.