Palestinian Alaa Shehada Uses Comedy to Tell His Journey Home at Edinburgh Fringe
DUBAI — Palestinian comedian and theater maker Alaa Shehada is bringing his journey home to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this month with “The Bridge,” a show inspired by the grueling 12-hour crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan.
The bridge is barely 180 meters long, but it takes three checkpoints and several failed attempts to cross. “It’s driving everyone mad,” Shehada said. “It’s a very simple right to have, which is traveling from your house to Jordan. Why does it take all of that?”
Shehada trained for four years at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp, where he immersed himself in clowning, stand-up, storytelling, masks, and commedia dell’arte. “Comedy allows us to say way more,” he said.
The Palestine Comedy Club, which he founded, grew from a UK stand-up tour. “We are a culture of storytelling,” he said. “Every conversation starts with a joke and ends with a joke.” In the West Bank, where “you can’t make one journey without obstacles,” laughter is a way of coping.
His show “The Horse of Jenin” won a Fringe First last year. Shehada expects to perform close to 30 shows this month. Among the festival’s thousands of productions, he said, the Palestinian voice matters. “People still need to hear more about Palestine and the Palestinians through comedy, through theater, because it allows people to see us as humans.”
“The Bridge” runs at Assembly Roxy until August 16; “The Horse of Jenin” plays at The Pleasance from August 18 to 30; and “Hanna Shammas Takes to Heart” runs at Underbelly from August 24 to 30.
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