ONE NIGHT IN LONDON​
As artists, friends and allies share The Revolution's Promise around the world, each team has a unique way of bringing these testimonies the their community.
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Below we share this detailed account from Moi Ko Theatre of one night in South-East London
The event took place at Avalon Cafe in south-east London on June 5th.
Avalon Cafe is a quirky and quaint performance space and cafe, regularly hosting events for emerging local artists, which we thought would make for the perfect atmosphere.
We had an art fair starting at 5pm, the rehearsed reading at 7:30pm, a panel right after, and a DJ set to finish.
​The art fair was produced by our team member Riya, who got together a group of visual artists to sell their work, with Palestine as a central theme but included other personal projects too. The variety was stunning, and a portion of the proceeds went to support a Palestinian family’s GoFundMe to cross into Egypt.
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The art fair was a success and a lovely introduction to the event, after which we began directing the audience to their seats - and this we had trouble with! Our online ticket sales sold out that morning, which meant the space would be packed anyway, but many others turned up without a ticket. With a squeeze, most of us fit in and sat on the floor, and a few latecomers had to stand outside and listen through the door. Clearly very popular!
The rehearsed reading went well. Company members Bence and Audrey gave a brief foreword to introduce Moi Ko Theatre, then The Freedom Theatre and The Revolution’s Promise.
Our readers then took the stage. The readers are a beautiful group of artists with Arab heritage - some of them our friends, some a part of our activist circles, and some complete strangers who responded to our call out! With just a couple of relaxed, informal rehearsals, the cast delivered a gorgeous reading of the text.
The audience was so moved - if only you were there for the applause. It was electric!
We took a little break after the reading for everyone to refresh themselves, grab a drink and get some fresh air, before we came back for the second half. Alaa Shehada started us off with an excerpt of a work-in-progress comedy set, which was received so well - he truly had us in the palm of his hand.
After all the giggles, our company member Tati hosted a panel with Alaa, Sasha Shadid (a British-Palestinian dance artist) and a good friend of ours who chooses to remain anonymous, but is highly involved in pro-Palestine university encampments in the Netherlands. With them, Tati led a discussion on the role of the arts in resistance, where each panelist gave us insight into their ways of coping, their artistic processes, and personal stories.
When this came to an end, our friend Oliver began a DJ set using tracks from the Majazz Project, which was a perfect ending for people to have their final conversations, debrief with their friends and find their way home.
Overall, we sold 60 tickets online with a pay-what-you-can model, with the money going to the Artist Resistance Programme.