@ Aisha_Live_Gaza

Synopsis

Aisha, a woman from Gaza, decides, encouraged by her son, to open a cooking channel on Instagram. Her dream is to open her own restaurant in Gaza. A place that will give her independence.

In September 2023 she opens her first “live” with six viewers and a traditional Gazan recipe. As the genocide in Gaza unfolds, she gains thousands of followers around the world - many likes, but the ingredients are running out.

She keeps documenting her life and her cooking as she is displaced from one place to another - from her home to her parents' house, from her parents' house to a tent, and every “live” she opens reveals another stage in the deliberate starvation of Gaza: cooking from cans, eating wild leaves and weeds, airdropped aid, the absence of flour and the dangers of obtaining it.

But Aisha keeps cooking.

The play is created from the testimonies of many women from Gaza - videos, messages, accounts, posts. Women who kept documenting even when they had nothing left to cook. Some of them are still struggling to survive.

Objectives of the Play

The starvation in Gaza was not a byproduct of war. It was engineered. Restricting the entry of aid trucks, destroying agricultural infrastructure and bakeries, preventing fishing, controlling the number of calories permitted to enter - these are calculated, documented decisions designed to break an entire society. Hunger is not just a rumbling stomach. Prolonged and deliberate hunger turns communities into individuals fighting over crumbs of flour - it dismantles solidarity, family, trust. It causes people to do things they would never otherwise do.

“Aisha, Live” uses the logic of social media - the like, the share, the follower count- to make audiences aware of their own position as witnesses. We are working against a specific and documented phenomenon: the collapse of attention following ceasefire announcements, which creates a false impression that the crisis has ended while structural conditions - siege, starvation, displacement, detention- continue unchanged.

Premiere

Premiere: July 24, Al-Saraya Theatre, Jaffa.
Performance in Arabic with subtitles.

Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the making of this production. All meat appearing in the show is simulated.

Written by: Einat Weizman and Hossam Al-Madhoun

Performed by: Salwa Nakkara
Director: Einat Weizman
Production Manager: May Shehadeh
Set Designer: Salim Shehadeh
Video Designer: Eli Rizk
Music and Sound Designer: Rimon Haddad
Lighting Designer: Mohammad Shaheen
Guest Appearance: Najwan Dakdoki