Lemon and mint in Gaza now

I’ve only ever written two pieces of remote theatre myself - ‘The screen’ and ‘Lemon and mint’. Both are published in the Hands up publication ‘Doing Remote Theatre’. I wrote ‘Lemon and mint’ back in 2017 with a view to creating a play that explored the area of international understanding and dialogue, using simple language for children whose first language wasn’t English.

We were really just beginning to work out what Remote theatre was at that time, but since then it’s been performed remotely in many different ways by many different groups of children. It was first performed by children in Finland and Gaza, then by children in Gaza and Syrian refugee children in Jordan . Right at the end of the 2021 heavy bombardment of Gaza, on the UN day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, it was performed in a webinar with the directors of UNRWA Gaza and British Council Palestine by children in Ukraine and Gaza.

Children in India and Gaza made a very interesting and unusual version of it as an entry in our 2023 Intercultural Remote Theatre competition, which can be seen here.

All of these performances make me feel immensely proud of what we have achieved in Hands up over the years. But this is nothing compared to the feelings I have watching the videos of the rehearsals of ‘Lemon and Mint’ which are being done in Gaza right now. Despite everything, English teacher Muneera has managed to put together another version of Lemon and Mint, performed in a garden in Gaza. The final performance will be ready soon but in the meantime here are some short videos of some of their rehearsals.