The New Gaza Monologues (2026)

The Venice International Performance Art Week presents

 

NEW GAZA MONOLOGUES

An evening of staged readings

June 26, 2026, 7:00 pm
Magazzini del Sale Docks, Dorsoduro, 30100 Venice

 

An event organised by

VestAndPage – Venice International Performance Art Week

Andrigo&Aliprandi – Live Arts Cultures

 

On 26 June 2026, at Magazzini del Sale Docks (Venice), Venice International Performance Art Week and Live Arts Cultures, in collaboration with Sale Docks, presents a public reading of the New Gaza Monologues, which brings together testimonies written by young people living in Gaza. These texts recount lived experiences marked by war, displacement and resilience, offering an urgent insight into the realities faced by a generation that has grown up in extreme conditions. The monologues will be presented in a multilingual format (Italian, English, Arabic).

The event represents an act of solidarity with those who suffer and lack privilege. It seeks to continue the Gaza Monologues project initiated in 2010, which, as the New Gaza Monologues, has been conceived by Iman Aoun, co-founder and executive director of ASHTAR Theatre.

The evening will feature artists, performers and guest readers, including interpreters directly connected to the cultural and linguistic contexts of the texts.

Organised within the curatorial framework of the Venice International Performance Art Week 2026, the reading evening adopts a minimalist performative approach, centred on the voice, presence and the act of listening. More than a staged performance, the event offers an ethical space for encounter, where testimony becomes a shared experience.

The initiative also aims to raise awareness and support the ongoing work of ASHTAR Theatre with young people in Palestine.

 

Free entry but expected donation to the urgent psycho-social programme for Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank

 

About ASHTAR Theatre: ASHTAR Theatre is a Palestinian theatre and non-governmental organisation based in Birzeit, the West Bank, founded in 1991 by Iman Aoun and Edward Muallem, under the artistic direction of Emile Saba. A pioneer of Theatre of the Oppressed in Palestine and the Arab world, ASHTAR uses theatre as a tool for social change, cultural resistance, political and personal liberation, community transformation, and advocacy. The Gaza Monologues is one of ASHTAR’s landmark international projects, first created in 2010 from testimonies written by young people in Gaza, and has since been performed in more than 72 countries and over 400 places worldwide.

How to support ASHTAR Theatre