Theatre and Forced Displacement 04/31
Join us for a staged reading of Ghassan Kanafani’s Returning to Haifa, adapted by Ismail Khalidi and Naomi Wallace. The reading will be followed by a discussion with Professors Carrie Preston and Margaret Litvin and playwright Ismail Khalidi.
Returning to Haifa, a compelling story of two families – one Palestinian, one Israeli – forced by history into an intimacy they didn’t choose. This “utterly unsentimental exploration of the complexities of home, history, and parenthood” centers on Palestinian couple Said and Safiyya who were forced to flee their home in 1948. Now, in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War, the borders are open for the first time in 20 years and the couple dare to return to their house in Haifa. They are prepared to find someone else living where they once did. Yet nothing can prepare Said and Safiyya for the encounter they both desire and dread.
Returning to Haifa received its world premiere in London at the Finborough Theatre in 2018 and will receive its U.S. premiere at Pangea World Theater in April 2023.
