A silent Palestinian play turns absence into testimony

The stage floor is laid out as a fragile circle of oranges and stones. From this quiet geometry emerges a self-contained world—a Palestinian woman’s home, her life rooted in the tending of orange orchards. She is alone, and she is content. The silence is calm, almost sacred. Then the disruption comes—without warning.

A man enters, dragging a large, empty suitcase. He is dishevelled, exhausted, and unsettlingly persistent. The woman hesitates, then offers him water. He wants more. Slowly, deliberately, he begins to unpack. What follows is not a loud invasion, but a gradual takeover—initially resisted, then enforced. Her home is no longer hers.

This is Oranges & Stones, a wordless play by Palestine’s Ashtar Theatre, performed at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala on Tuesday. Told entirely through physical action and original music, the production traverses more than 75 years of occupation, displacement and loss in Palestine—without uttering a single word. Accalimed theatre person Prof. Mojisola Adebayo is the director of the play.

“Sometimes silence is louder,” says Iman Aoun, co-founder of Ashtar Theatre and the play’s sole performer, speaking to The Hindu. “In those 50 minutes, we tell the whole story of Palestine—from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 till today.”

For Aoun, theatre is not art removed from reality. It is survival.

Cultural resistance

“Theatre and the arts are part of our cultural resistance and resilience,” she says. “We have been under occupation for 77 years. We cannot fight with the same technology or weapons. We fight by preserving our stories, our history, our narratives—and by telling them to the world.”

Founded in 1991, Ashtar Theatre has consistently positioned political theatre as a tool for empowerment. Its work reaches young people in cities, villages and refugee camps across Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, placing theatre at the heart of social transformation.

“Right now, we cannot talk about peace,” Aoun says bluntly. “You cannot talk about understanding when one is under the boot of the other. This is a colonial regime—like what Britain did in India. But we believe change will come.”

A scene from ‘Oranges & Stones,’ a wordless play by Palestine’s Ashtar Theatre, at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala in Thrissur on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit:
K.K. NAJEEB

She speaks of erasure on multiple levels—human, cultural and environmental. “Along with genocide, there is ecocide and culturalcide,” she says. “They destroyed theatres, museums, monuments and churches. They stole our land, our water sources, our plantations. Palestine was once one of the largest exporters of oranges in the world.”

She also reminds us that Palestine is the birthplace of Christianity. “Christians and Muslims have been systematically erased. Many were killed; many were forced to leave. The Zionist movement wanted everyone else to flee.”

Yet, despite the despair, Aoun insists on hope. “They want us distressed, frustrated, violent—so they can label us terrorists and erase us. That is why we must stay. That is why we must give young people courage and hope.”

On stage, the oranges roll away. The stones remain. And what lingers long after the performance ends is not dialogue, but an unshakable truth: this silence speaks for a people who refuse to disappear.

Published – January 27, 2026 08:23 pm IST