Coming from afar to perform in Totnes
Palestinian Young People travelling to UK to perform in theatre show as part of Totnes Fringe Festival
‘WELCOME TO GAZA’ by Hands Up Project is being performed on 11th July 7:30pm and 12th July 1pm @ Totnes Civic Hall, as well as in Edinburgh, London and Greenbelt Festival, Kettering.
Hands Up Project are putting on a production of WELCOME TO GAZA on the 11th and 12th July 2025 as part of Totnes Fringe Festival. The show is then touring to the Edinburgh Fringe as part of Welcome to the Fringe: Palestine festival, before going south down to Palestine House, London, and Greenbelt Festival, Kettering.
WELCOME TO GAZA is made up of 19 short plays by children from Gaza and the West Bank, written pre-October 7th 2023, woven into a continuous 90-minute play. Some of the young people who have managed to escape from Palestine are coming to the UK to perform in the show.
Directed by award-winning local playwright Peter Oswald, who recently completed a Pilgrimage for Palestine in March 2025, Welcome to Gaza tells stories of what life is really like in Gaza and the West Bank, giving an insight into what it’s like to be a child growing up in the midst of a genocide.
Peter Oswald says: “WELCOME TO GAZA burst into the world a year ago with a public reading at the Marylebone Theatre featuring Harriet Walter. Now some of the originators of the plays, exiles from Gaza, are travelling to Britain to stage a full production at the Totnes, Edinburgh and Greenbelt festivals and at Palestine House in London. This is a momentous cultural event, a cry from the heart of Gaza right in the heart of Britain.”
Hands Up Project is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine. By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, children living in Palestine get the chance to write plays, stories and poems, sharing their experiences across the globe. Many of the Hands Up Project team, including Nick Bilborough (founder) are based in Totnes, Devon.
Tickets for WELCOME TO GAZA can be purchased on the Totnes Pulse website: https://www.totnespulse.co.uk/totnesfringe/
For more information, please contact Isobel Jacob (producer): issyjacob@hotmail.co.uk or 07572283303
Instagram and X: @handsupproject