Gaza theatre-maker Hossam Madhoun navigates transient new life in Egypt
Hossam Madhoun worked for 30 years as a theatre-maker and writer in Gaza City before Israel began its devastating onslaught on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023.
"The theatre movement in Gaza is deprived of exchanging with the world, especially in the last 17 years with the Israeli blockade," he tells Middle East Eye from Cairo, where he now lives with his family.
Before the Israeli blockade in 2006, Theatre for Everybody - the company Madhoun co-founded with his friend and co-artistic director Jamal al-Rozzi - toured Europe, staging productions for adults and children in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and elsewhere.
Since then, it has been more challenging, but the show went on: in 2009, he began collaborating with Az Theatre, a company based in London and run by Jonathan Chadwick, launching workshops and productions together.
Even then, Madhoun could not sustain himself purely as a playwright and many of his theatre projects now lie neglected as the war rages on.