Geography: Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > Australia
Year: 2019
Produced by: La Mama Theatre with an independent Palestinian-Australian creative team
Creative Team: Written by Samah Sabawi; directed by Bagryana Popov
Synopsis: THEM is set in a besieged city where five people wait for a smuggler who may provide a route out. The location remains unnamed. This prevents the audience from assigning displacement to one distant conflict. Characters begin to remember their past as the production examines how war reduces movement to dangerous choices between remaining and leaving. Refuge does not mean arriving at a secure destination as escape ultimately depends on money and trust. The prospective travellers know that another border may expose them to further violence. Sabawi gives the characters humour and disagreement, resisting a single image of “the refugee.” THEM focuses on how the home has become unsafe but another place is not yet reachable.
Source: ArtsHub, production review: https://www.artshub.com.au/news/reviews/review-them-la-mama-theatre-vic-258130-2363428/ Australian Cultural Fund, project information: https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E6F000003ZMpwUAG/them-a-new-play-by-sama h-sabawi