Asra: Stories of Palestinian Prisoners

Asra – Stories of Palestinian Prisoners is an innovative documentary theatre production that uses testimony, puppetry, music and audience participation to share the stories of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. We are developing the work for national touring so audiences across Aotearoa can engage with these powerful stories of resilience, dignity, and hope.

Asra is a collaboration between Sumud Ensemble and Harakat Productions.

Sumud Ensemble is a collective of Palestinian, Māori and tauiwi creatives based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Through theatre, festivals, workshops and community events, the ensemble uplifts Palestinian and Indigenous stories while building solidarity and shared imagination across communities in Aotearoa.

The production is directed by Dr Rand Hazou, a Palestinian theatre practitioner, facilitator and scholar whose work enages with issue of rights and social justice. Producing is Ariana Williams, whose work on the Auckland Fringe season of Asra was recognised with a Producer Award.

The diverse cast includes Acacia O’Connor (Tales of a City by the Sea, My Name is Rachel Corrie), with musical direction by Eva Maria Ghannam, and a musical score featuring Begonia Chan (cello) and Geo Tugushi (percussion).  Puppet design and coaching by Paul Lewis.

Together, the team brings testimony, music, puppetry and performance into a shared language for stories that are often unheard.

We are raising funds to support the redevelopment and touring of Asra – Stories of Palestinian Prisoners.

Funding will go towards:

• Artist fees for performers, musicians and creatives during redevelopment and rehearsals
• Rehearsal and training costs to develop six actors across three roles for a flexible touring ensemble
• Creative development to refine the work and strengthen its touring structure
• Touring costs including travel, accommodation, freight and venue-related expenses

Asra has been built through deep collaboration and generosity from artists and community members. This funding ensures artists are fairly supported and the work can reach audiences beyond Tāmaki Makaurau.

Asra is a documentary theatre work featuring the stories of Palestinian prisoners, told through performance, puppetry and music.

While thousands of Palestinians have experienced imprisonment under Israeli occupation, their stories are often reduced to statistics or political rhetoric. This work invites audiences to meet the people behind those narratives: a woman who kept a stray cat alive in solitary confinement, a girl accused of a crime she did not commit, a man who learned seventeen languages in prison, along with writers, poets, hunger strikers and others who found ways to hold onto dignity, imagination, and hope.

Following its 2024 season, we are redeveloping Asra into a touring production. This includes strengthening the work across multiple performers and creating a flexible model for theatres, schools, marae, festivals and community spaces across Aotearoa.

At its core, Asra asks how we listen, and what it means to hold someone’s story with care.

Asra brings forward stories that are often unseen or reduced to headlines. It creates space for audiences to encounter lived experience directly, through performance, presence and testimony.

The work resists abstraction. It holds incarceration, separation and endurance without simplification, and asks what it means to remain human within systems of dehumanisation.

For audiences in Aotearoa, Asra connects local contexts of justice with global systems of power and resistance. It supports empathy grounded in specificity rather than sentiment, and understanding shaped by listening to real stories.

Theatre can hold complexity in ways other forms cannot. This work creates space for attention, reflection and dialogue without forcing conclusions.

Supporting Asra means supporting the right of stories to be told in full. It means making space for voices often excluded from mainstream cultural platforms, and recognising the role of the arts in how we understand one another and the world we share.