WEST BANK: A play celebrating the life of late U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King is being performed in the West Bank city of Jenin

Record ID: 560419

  • Title: WEST BANK: A play celebrating the life of late U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King is being performed in the West Bank city of Jenin
  • Date: 4th April 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ACTOR, RAMZI MAKDESI, SAYING: "Many people will ask why we are performing this play, as it is American. But a play that characterises Martin Luther King, who fought in a peaceful way, should be performed. The Palestinians have tried everything and nothing has helped us. Even peaceful resistance (against Israel) did not work out. I don't think there is a problem with performing an American play because Martin Luther King does not represent the government. We are speaking about a popular resistance movement in America."
  • Embargoed: 19th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA74R9RRYS55736ELD4A7N5YJJD
  • Story Text: "Passages of Martin Luther King", a play about the black American civil rights leader of the title, is currently running at the Freedom Theatre in the West Bank city of Jenin.
    The theatre company the Palestinian National Theatre Al-Hakawati collaborated with the play's writer, Clayborne Carson, Professor of American history at Stanford University in the United States and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, to produce the Arabic-language version being staged in Jenin.
    Actor Ramzi Makdesi, who plays the main role in the play, says Martin Luther King Jr's belief in peaceful protest for civil rights are relevant to a Palestinian audience, despite some local criticism of the staging of an American play.
    "Many people will ask why we are performing this play, as it is American. But because a play that characterises Martin Luther King, who fought in a peaceful way, should be performed. The Palestinians have tried all the ways and nothing helped us. Even the peaceful resistance did not work out. I don't think there is a problem with performing an American play because Martin Luther King does not represent the government. We are speaking about a popular resistance movement in America," he recently told Reuters Television.
    The play's director, Kamal al-Basha, said he had tried to link its civil rights theme to current uprisings in the Arab world.
    "We were trying to relate the play to the Arab revolutions which happened in Tunisia and Egypt and which are continuing in the Arab region. And (to show) how the Palestinian people are affected by them and how their struggle for freedom is affected by them," Basha explained.
    The play is being performed in Jenin as opposition movements in some Arab countries are protesting or fighting against their governments, in the wake of the recent ousting of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Tunisian President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali.
    In the play, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is portrayed emphatically banging his fist on a podium as he threatens to bomb opponents of his regime.
    The cast consists of eight Palestinian actors. Six African-American singers also participate in the production.
    Martin Luther King Jr. who was born in 1929 in Atlanta, gained national prominence in 1955 when he led the boycott of the bus network in Montgomery, Alabama, after Rosa Parks, a black woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man.
    He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
    At a rally in Washington in 1963 he made the speech included the now iconic phrase 'I have a dream', which is regarded as one of the most stirring pleas for emancipation on record.
    Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. His killing set off race riots in more than 100 U.S. cities.
    The Palestinian version of Carson's play runs at the Freedom Theatre until April 5.
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