PalMusic UK Presents: 'Welcome to Gaza' Theatre performance by Hands Up Project
Voices of Palestine Festival - A Celebration of Palestinian Culture & Heritage
‘Welcome to Gaza’ brings Palestinian children’s stories of life under siege and occupation to UK stages, in a powerful play compiled and directed by award-winning playwright Peter Oswald. Produced by the Hands Up Project, these nineteen plays by children from Gaza and the West Bank are woven into a continuous 70-minute play portraying real life in Gaza before and after the watershed of 7th October 2023. There will also be an opportunity to hear from the performers themselves with a special Q&A at the end of the event.
A note from the director, Peter Oswald: ‘Half the population of Gaza is children. Everybody knows about October 7th and its aftermath. Few people know in detail much about the life in Gaza before that. So, just in historical and sociological terms, the plays are important. But to me plays are more than that – they are living voices. The voices in these plays are brightly alive – under immense pressure grabbing the chance to speak to the world out of the prison, the death cell, of Gaza.’
‘When I say all the plays in Welcome to Gaza were written pre-October 7th, that’s true. When I say that world is gone forever, that’s true too. But the unfathomable thing is that ‘remote theatre’ has continued to come out of Gaza since October 7th. At least one new play, It Will Be Over Soon, and one new version of an old play, I Can, have been put together by young people and teachers and beamed out of Gaza under the present conditions… Though teachers can no longer visit Gaza in person from Britain, teachers in Gaza continue: to teach, to tell stories, to generate poems and oversee the creation of new plays. And, in Cairo, Hands Up Project has set up a school for children who have escaped from Gaza. At present, 36 children are taught there. I taught at the Cairo school in May 2025, developing three plays with the children. These are their stories.’
This event will last approximately 90 minutes (without an interval), inclusive of a 20-minute Q&A with the performers at the end.
Concessions & Under 30s tickets
Kings Place Concessions Tickets
We want to ensure that people who may be struggling financially to purchase a ticket can still enjoy visiting Kings Place. A limited number of tickets are allocated for certain events (if the ticket type does not show in the booking pathway, it means they are not available for this event or have all been sold). Concessions tickets are accessible for people on the following criteria (for more information visit our FAQs)
- Pension Credit
- Universal Credit
- Disability Benefit
- Income Support or Job Seekers allowance
- Students
£10 ‘Under 30s’ tickets
A limited number of £10 tickets for attendees aged under 30 are available for certain shows. To purchase an ‘Under 30s’ ticket, please choose the ‘Under 30s’ price type when selecting your ticket(s). If the option does not appear, this means all ‘Under 30s’ tickets have sold out or are not available for this performance. Please note that proof of age may be requested at the venue. The £10 offer does not apply to premium price categories.
Plan your visit
Getting here
Kings Place is situated just a few minutes’ walk from King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, one of the most connected locations in London and now the biggest transport hub in Europe.
Our address is:
90 York Way, London, N1 9AG.
The Venue
Our performance spaces are situated on the lower ground floor. Hall One, Hall Two and St Pancras are located in level -2, reached by stairs, escalator and lift from the ground floor entrance level.
Event Times
Door times indicate auditorium entrance times only. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the Kings Place seating areas, gallery-level art, canal-side terrace, café, restaurant and bar throughout the day and evening.
- Our events begin promptly at the advertised start time. Typically, there is no support unless otherwise stated.
- We recommend arriving in good time before the performance. The Hall doors will open 30 minutes before the performance to allow time to take your seats, or to choose a space for standing shows.
- Latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance where possible
Access
We aim to make your visit to Kings Place as comfortable as possible. For more information about the accessibility of Kings Place, including details about our Access Scheme, please visit this page.
If you would like to discuss your access requirements with a member of our team, please get in touch with the Box Office team at info@kingsplace.co.uk.
Food & Drink
Rotunda Bar & Restaurant
Rotunda, situated on the ground floor of Kings Place, offers a unique dining and drinking experience alongside Regent’s Canal. The concert bar in the venue foyer will also be open for select events.
Green & Fortune Café
Recently re-furbished and now open with a new look, the Green & Fortune Café is open for selected concerts. Serving hot and cold food and drinks, including sandwiches, salads, soup, stew and a pie of the day, alongside a choice of cakes made by the on-site bakery team. See here for selected concert dates and standard opening hours.
About Peter Oswald
Currently Associate Writer at the Marylebone Theatre, Peter Oswald was writer-in-residence at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre 1998 -2005, where his verse plays have been performed and also at the National Theatre, in the West End, on Broadway and around the world. He is a founder member of Columbina Theatre company and also writes poetry which he performs. He has also written a play, Steiner, about the life of Rudolf Steiner, for Lemniscate Arts, an anthroposophical arts company in the US. His book, Sonnets of Various Sizes – sixty sonnets written over thirty-two years, is published by Shearsman Books.
Presented by PalMusic UK
