‘Theatre, Therapy and War’
A workshop and discussion with Hossam Madhoun (Gaza City’s Theatre for Everybody)

Monday, 16th March 2026 from 15h00 until 19h00
Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio, Faculty of English
9 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DP

Please join us for a workshop and discussion with renowned Palestinian theatre maker Hossam Madhoun, reflecting on how artists use theatre and performance to create spaces of therapeutic practice for young people in Gaza. The workshop will explore the potential of culturally embedded and creative therapeutic practices in Gaza, and address interconnected questions of healing, liberation, and justice in the Palestinian context.

HOSSAM MADHOUN is a theatre maker, playwright and writer who worked in Gaza City for more than thirty years before being displaced to Egypt in April 2024. With Jamal Al Rozzi, he co-founded the Theatre for Everybody in Gaza in 1987. Since 2009, he has been collaborating with London’s Az Theatre through the Gaza Drama Long Term partnership, producing a range of plays, workshops, performance projects (live and virtual) and exhibitions including Breathing Space (2009), Opening Signs (2011), War&Peace (2013), Here, There, Everywhere (2017), more information about which can be found here. One of his recent projects (again with the Az Theatre and Artists on the Frontline) includes Another Day: Messages from Gaza (London, 2023), a live reading of accounts sent by him from Gaza since October 2023, which you can read and listen to here. He is currently a fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Theatre at Birkbeck, University of London. Alongside his work for the theatre, he has also worked with the Ma’an Development Centre, a Gaza-based NGO, and developed a range of drama therapy programmes for children affected by conflict.

This session will be comprised of two parts.
It will begin with a workshop, 15h00 until 17h00, followed by an artist’s talk, 17h30 until 19h00.
Any queries please email: ks928@cam.ac.uk or zas21@cam.ac.uk