The play Returning to Haifa

The play “Returning to Haifa” tells the story of a Palestinian couple who were uprooted from their home in Haifa in 1948.

In the year 1967, after great hesitation, they returned to Haifa, asking to see the house, the neighborhood, the Haifa they knew before 1948, and basically to search for their son, who was a child at the time and remained in the house when they were uprooted from it in an atmosphere of terror and haste.

Did he stay alive? Is the disaster survivor living in their home the one who raised their child? If so, did this child know what his origin was?

“I searched for the homeland. For us - you and I - it was just a search for something under the dust of memory, and look what we found under that dust... new dust as well! We made a mistake when we considered that the homeland was only the past, but for Khaled, the homeland for him was the future.. Tens of thousands like Khaled... look to the future... and therefore they correct our mistakes and the mistakes of the whole world.”

This is what Said said to his wife, Safia, at the end of their fraught visit to Haifa in 1967, after the war ended and the borders were opened again.

The play is based on the story of Ghassan Kanafani and produced by Al-Karma Theater.

Prepared and directed by – Makram Khoury

Decor and clothing – Ashraf Hanna

Techniques: Elias Rasheed, Bilal Toukan

Starring: Khaled Awad, Maysaa Khamis, Samah Sarhan, Milad Matar, Sobhi Hosri, and Iyad Shetty.