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View all search results‘The Gaza Monologues’ bring Palestinian stories to Literature and Ideas Festival
Jakarta’s Literature and Ideas Festival ends on a solemn note with The Gaza Monologues—firsthand stories from a war zone.
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Quiet devastation: Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa’at reads a monologue by Palestinian writer Heba Daoud on Aug. 16, the final day of the Literature and Ideas Festival (LIFEs) at Teater Salihara, South Jakarta. In her text, Daoed, now living in Egypt, recounts how the war has left her feeling emotionally numb. (Komunitas Salihara/-)
T
he final day of the Literature and Ideas Festival (LIFEs), organized by Komunitas Salihara on Aug. 16 at Teater Salihara in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, featured testimonies of Palestinians living amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, dubbed The Gaza Monologues, collected by Ashtar Theatre.
Voices from the rubble
Teater Salihara, filled with 350 people, fell silent as voices from Gaza filled the room. Translator Gladhys Elliona, Sukatani vocalist Twister Angel (also known as Novi Citra Indriyati) and Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa’at read six monologues written by Ali Abu Yassin, Suha Al Mamlouk, Amjad Abu Yasin, Heba Daoud and Niveen Ziada—translated into Indonesian by Moluccan writer Nukila Amal.
Through their voices, the audience listened to stories of war and loss, courage and fragile hope—a performance that served as both art and solidarity.
“The six stories represent different perspectives. Some are told in dramatic tones, others through irony. This shows the different ways people cope with trauma,” said festival director Ayu Utami in her opening remarks.
One of the works, From Gaza to Shakespeare by Ali Abu Yassin, cofounder of Ashtar Theatre, captures the daily horror in Gaza, where children often become victims.
“Seeing your loved ones in pieces. Your heart is torn a thousand times every day as if it were a piece of rubber. Get up, Shakespeare. Help me, my friend. I'm really tired. Resist with your wise pen—full of love, joy, revolution, humanity, hope and freedom—openly. Maybe we will all become brothers under that blue sky,” Yassin wrote, his words voiced onstage by Gladhys.
