Book Review: Samer Al-Saber. A Movement’s Promise: The Making of Contemporary Palestinian Theatre (Stanford University Press, 2025). Pp. 328. Hardcover, Paperback, E-book.

Arab Stages

ISSN: 2376-1148

Vol. 19 (Spring 2026), pp. 66-68

To preserve a certain memory and keep it alive, it's important to tell its story. This is what Samer Al-Saber accomplishes in his significant book, A Movement's Promise. He begins in a humorous tone to define the word "movement," aiming to avoid misunderstandings associated with its usual violent political connotations. After establishing this concept, Al-Saber provides justification for his selection of theatrical groups by detailing their histories.

Focusing his research on Jerusalem and Ramallah, Al-Saber encountered difficulties in finding sufficient information about older groups. The challenges stem from the Nakba (the disaster) of Israel’s occupation and its consequences from 1948 to 1967. As a result, the author chooses to start his meticulous archival and ethnographic research from the year 1967, since the Palestinian theatrical movement was largely absent before this time.

In the first two chapters, Al-Saber uses anecdotes and stories from artists to historicize the cultural Palestinian landscape and the political context from which the theatrical movement emerged after 1948. The early groups, which were short-lived, primarily targeted a Christian audience. One example is the Jerusalem Players Group, established by Haidar Al-Husseini, whose productions were mainly in English, although there was one performance of Eugene O'Neill in Arabic.

George Ibrahim, who later founded Al-Kasaba Theatre—considered the largest group in Ramallah—was initially an actor and trainee in the Jerusalem Players Group. In chapter 3, covering the years from 1970 to 1973, Al-Saber highlights Ibrahim’s background as an actor in Israeli radio and television. Ibrahim eventually started his own group, The Theatrical Artistic Group, in the early 1970s, later renaming it Balalin (The Balloons) in 1972. This group became one of the longest-lived and most popular, primarily targeting children and young audiences. Due to the occupation, artists faced significant challenges in securing venues for theatrical and cultural events. As a Christian working for Israeli Radio and Television, Ibrahim was able to obtain the necessary permissions to perform in specific locations, such as Al-Omariyyeh School. Unfortunately, this new group eventually disbanded because they could not establish a stable financial position from which to produce plays. Additionally, the expanding control of Israeli military forces led to the dissolution of many Palestinian groups that had emerged during the 1970s and 1980s.

Chapter 4 treats the following five years, 1973 to 1977, when several new theatre ensembles were formed, including Dababis, known for its theatre of resistance; the Palestinian Theatre Troupe (1973–1996); The Palestinian People’s Theatre (1979–1983); and Sanabel People’s Theatre (1983 to present). Each of these groups had its own unique style and attributes, but most presented realistic plays, whether comedic or tragic. They also incorporated al-dabkah, an indigenous Palestinian folkloric dance, into their productions. In 1973, several of these groups collaborated to organize the first theatrical festival in Ramallah. In addition, they established an artists' equity organization, the Association for Work and Development for the Arts, which served as an alternative to the absent Palestinian Ministry of Culture. They also published a theatrical magazine called Al-Masrah (The theatre), which helped document their movement and fostered a critical discourse in the 1970s. However, the situation for these groups worsened, as noted by Al-Saber, who documents artists getting arrested and expelled from Palestine. One such artist, Al-Kurd, was arrested twice before being forced into exile.

Reaching a pivotal moment in this tragic narrative, chapter 5 focuses on El-Hakawati ensemble, one of the most renowned groups in the history of contemporary Palestinian theatre. Al-Saber details El-Hakawati’s prolific history from 1977 to 1987 under the leadership of François Abu Salem, discussing the historical context, the restrictions and obstacles they faced, as well as examples of their productions and themes based on interviews with the group's artists, including their critiques of the ensemble.

This methodology is applied to many other groups as well. A crucial issue that arose alongside the external challenges faced by Palestinian artists was the deep divisions among them, which led to the disappearance of most ensembles formed in the 1970s, compounded by a lack of permanent theatrical spaces. Al-Saber addresses this issue in chapter 6, covering the years from 1981 to 1984. During this period, El-Hakawati experienced its golden era, successfully transforming a burnt cinema into a stable theatre space. With financial support from Europe and the United States, this building became a national cultural center, allowing Palestinian artists to take leadership of the venue and rename it the Palestinian National Theatre. One of El-Hakawati’s most significant achievements during this time was touring their productions in European countries and the United States. However, they faced new challenges, including biased reviews of their productions through an orientalist lens and the difficulties of performing in front of diverse audiences from various nationalities and backgrounds.

Al-Saber returns to George Ibrahim in chapter 7, which focus on the years from 1984 to 1986, and documents the various groups Ibrahim collaborated with, including Masrah Al-Shoke, Firqat Al-Funoun El-Masrahiyyah, and, finally, Al-Kasaba Troupe.

Unfortunately, during the Intifada from 1987 to 1990, the events unfolding in the streets had a profound impact on all theatrical groups. El-Hakawati, in particular, experienced significant internal conflict. As chronicled in chapter 8, it's noteworthy that two new groups emerged: Sanabel and El-Warsheh El-Fanniyeh. Besides the well-known companies, there were also smaller groups that struggled consistently to achieve financial stability and secure rehearsal and performance space.

Finally, in chapter 9, Al-Saber compares the declining prominence of El-Hakawati Theatre with the rising success of Al-Kasaba Theatre, which Ibrahim was preparing to make his final destination in Jerusalem during the Intifada period. This new venue featured a co-production between Palestinian and Israeli artists of Romeo and Juliet, presented as a reflection of the Oslo Peace Accords. The challenges faced by the production led Ibrahim to remark, "Peace was just on paper and doesn’t exist in our reality," a sentiment supported by the events that followed in the years after the early 1990s up to the present day. In its conclusion, this book briefly mentions the emergent groups and theatre directors of the last twenty-five years. A comprehensive discussion about them would require another book.

Al-Saber’s primary objective is to present information about the founding generations of Palestinian theatre, which is particularly significant given the limited number of publications on Palestinian theatre, in English or Arabic. He has succeeded in documenting and analyzing the productions of this earlier movement within its economic and political context, which is an ambitious goal given the considerable task of translating excerpts from journal reviews and conducting ethnographic research. Indeed, Al-Saber situates the Palestinian theatrical movement as authentic and impactful in this important work.