Troupe Courage - The horse of Jenin Alaa Shehada

Ode to the power of imagination

The performance is an ode to the power of imagination and the value of playing in freedom. It is at the same time physical folk theatre of the highest level, a personal story about life in Palestine and a celebration of the imagination.

In April 2002, Jenin was invaded. In the aftermath, a German artist came for an art workshop. After four weeks, with the help of 15 Palestinians, he revealed the result. From the rubble and debris, a horse was created that was 5 meters tall! The horse is an Arab symbol of freedom, but this horse was also a symbol of peaceful resistance. It was a symbol of resilience. Last November 2023, an Israeli bulldozer entered the camp and took the horse away.

In this solo, Alaa asks himself: what happened to the horse? Was it arrested? Did it go to court? Could it defend itself? Did they put it in jail? Was the horse interrogated? And did it then tell about the day Alaa tried to ride the horse with his best friend Ahmed? With this solo, Alaa builds a new horse, constructed from the fragments of his memories, supplemented with a huge dose of humor and imagination. A theatrical symbol of resistance and imagination.