Queens of Syria (the documentary) tells the story of fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan,who came together in Autumn 2013 to create and perform their own version of the Trojan Women, Euripides’ timeless Ancient Greek tragedy about the plight of women in war. Not one of them had ever acted before.
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What followed was an extraordinary moment of cross-cultural contact across millennia, in which women born in 20th century Syria found a blazingly vivid mirror of their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, uprooted, enslaved,and bereaved by the Trojan War.
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It was a process charged with emotion and fraught with challenges, as long buried issues came to the surface, and at times the project itself hung in the balance.
Yasmin Fedda’s subtly crafted and beautifully shot film explores the difficult choices the women have to make about appearing on stage, and the close relationships they form within the group as they explore with each other their experiences. It shows their bravery and determination that their stories should be told to the world.
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The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
The original production was invited to go on tour in the US and Switzerland, courtesy of Georgetown University in Washington DC, and Columbia University in New York, but sadly the casts visas were denied, so the tour was 'virtual' since unfortunately our original cast were unable to travel to the US as their visas were rejected. Listen here to the story on NPR. After we showed the trailer and some short clips from the documentary footage from 'Queens Of Syria', The inspirational cast of The Trojan Women received a standing ovation from a visibly moved Georgetown audience.Under the expert moderation and translation of Syrian broadcaster Honey Al Sayed, the cast, director and audience were able to have a discussion about the project, sharing experiences of participating in and of watching some of the performance. Despite thousands of miles and visa denials, the team at Georgetown enabled our cast to tell their stories and ask their questions, and gave the Washington audience a flavour of what (we hope!) is to come if visas are granted and a live performance is made possible.
You can discover more about the event in a report by Peter Marks in the Washington Post and also in a Foreign Policy article by Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, co-founder of the Georgetown Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Geneva
The Talberg Institute also hosted nine of the cast members to mount an abridged version of The Trojan Women at CERN in Switzerland.
In 2013 Refuge Productions in partnership with Oxfam mounted a new production of Euripides’ great anti war tragedy the Trojan Women in Jordan with a cast of Syrian refugee women displaced by the war in Syria. The production was intended both as a psycho-social support measure for the participants, and as an advocacy tool to highlight the plight of Syrian refugees. The women who participated arrived at the workshops in varying states of suffering from depression, feelings of isolation and PTSD. Without claiming that the production cured these, the Syrian psychologist we employed to monitor the workshops and rehearsals confirmed that the process allowed the women to take back a great measure of self confidence and self respect, as well as finding a new support group through sharing each others’ stories and experiences. In 2013 the refugee crisis engulfing the region as a result of the civil war in Syria was very under-reported internationally. We correctly projected that showing this crisis in a different and dramatically surprising way would have a much wider impact in reporting terms, and as such the play was widely covered by regional and international press both in newsprint and on television.
10 YEARS
NEW! Why Am I In Your Country? Podcast
2013
2023
WE ARE ALL REFUGEES
An original radio drama series made for the UNHCR and SouriaLi FM by Refuge Productions.
We Are All Refugees is a 6 part pilot for an audio soap opera about Syrian refugees in Jordan, co-written by a Syrian and Jordanian writing team, supported by the UNHCR, broadcast on SouriaLi radio, BBC Arabic Service and the UNHCR website in 2015. This series highlights and explores issues facing refugees and the Jordanian host community. The broadcast began on 21st December. See our NEWS page for dates and schedule. It starred Nawar Bulbul, Asmy Al Hasany, May Skaf, Eyad Hourani, and Nabil Sawalha, alongside women who participated in the original theatre project.
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As Welcome to Zaatari, an English language version We Are All Refugees was adapted for BBC Radio 4 by Liz Rigbey, directed and produced by Jonquil Panting and broadcast in November 2015.
The theme "We are all refugees" reflects the fact that 75% of Jordanians have refugee origins from Palestine, Iraq and Syria. Written, directed and produced by a team of Jordanians and Syrian refugees the drama explores and explain issues arising from the Syrian refugee crisis on both sides of the line through dramatic story lines and well drawn characters. The six fifteen minute episodes were aired on local Jordanian radio station Radio Souryali and on their internet platform, and have just been picked up by a UK-based international radio broadcast-details soon to be announced!
Listen to We Are All Refugees (Arabic)
Produced by Refuge Drama Productions and SouriaLi FM
Producers: William Stirling, Charlotte Eagar, Georgie Paget / Assistant Producer: Shereen Zoumot / Director: Wael Qadour / Writers: Wael Qadour, Ahmad Ameen, Majd Hijawi / Played by: Asmi Al Hassany, Zeinab Shrouf, Shereen Zoumot, Nabil Sawalha, Wael Qadour, Nawar Bulbul, Eyad Hourani, May Skaf, Ghandi Sabr, Fatmeh, Aodeh, Eyad Kundakci, Wael Al Balkhi, Maysoun Ata, Lina Mohammad, Raneem Ibraheem Aga, Ziad Safi, Reem Al Sayyah / Recorded by SouriaLi FM / Producer: Orwa Eyada / Music composed by: Abdulkarim Alhalabi
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