Ghassan Kanafani wrote "Bridge to Eternity" in 1965 as a radio
play for one of the Arab stations but it was never broadcast and it has
never been produced for the stage until now. "Bridge to Eternity"
is a play about the human condition, about continuation and survival,
about guilt and sin. It is also about love, understanding, and trust.
Faris (Knight) and Raja (Hope), Ghost, Mother can all be given political
and historical meaning because Kanafani couldn’t keep away from his
history and circumstance. Away from the symbols, however, the play still
stands on a philosophical level as an important piece on the human
psyche. "Bridge to Eternity" has been turned into a stage play
for two actors and has been translated in modern colloquial Arabic. Made
for Palestinian teenagers, the play was performed in secondary schools
around the Palestinian autonomous areas.
GHASSAN
KANAFANI
Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani was born in Acre in 1936. He and his
family were exiled from Haifa in 1948 and he was educated in the refugee
camps of Lebanon. It was there that he forged for himself a place in the
Palestinian revolution as author and ‘fighter.’ Kanafani’s activities as
a writer were diverse, ranging from journalism and political essays to
historical studies, theatre, and literary criticism. He was killed at
the height of his political and creative activity when his booby-trapped
car exploded on a street in Beirut. The literature of Kanafani,
expressing the tragedy of the Palestinian people, is known for its depth
and confusion and unending questions. The characters in his stories,
however, seemingly controlled by their destiny, always end up moving
forward.
A Co-Production with Inad
Theatre
Written by Ghassan Kanafani
Directed by Jan Willems
Raeda Ghazaleh ..... Raja
Khaled el Massou ..... Faris
Designed by Jackie Lubeck
Dramaturgy by Ahmad Rafiq Awad
Sound Effects & Sound Mix - Misha Shulga
Music Selection - Rami & Farid Shehadeh
First Assistant - Vivian Sansour
Second Assistant - Sami Mitwassi
Assistant to the Designer - Nancy Izhak
Set Construction - Imad Samara & Ramsi Sheikh Qassam