Poet Taha Muhammad Ali is an icon of Palestinian literature, humble in his life yet celebrated for his words that capture the resilience, love, and enduring spirit of his people.​ Adapted from Adina Hoffman’s acclaimed biography and under Amir Nizar Zuabi’s direction, Palestinian artist Amer Hlehel created Taha, which traces the man’s journey from a humble shopkeeper in Palestine to a celebrated poet worldwide. Receiving critical global acclaim, the one-man show is making its way back to Singapore after its 2018 staging, where Singapore Theatre Company (STC) will produce and host it at the KC Arts Centre next week.

We spoke to Amer, and asked him about the process of creating such an emotionally-powerful work, on separating the personal and political from the art, and the work’s renewed resonance in the current climate of violence, displacement and conflict around the world. Read the interview in full below, as we dive further into this work that tells an ever-important story of love, identity and a call for peace.

Bakchormeeboy: Could you tell us a bit about your life growing up, your exposure to the arts and how you decided to get involved with the arts as a full-time career, especially considering how uncertain the scene can be?

Amer Hlehel: Growing up in a small village in the 80s was a very unique experience, you absorb the world and your connection to it through your mother’s and father’s skills in telling stories and TV screens. For me, it was mainly Egyptian films and commercial theatre, but I always say that there is no decision in taking art as your life career and way of being, it is more a matter if you have the ‘bug’ or not. If you have it then there is no choice but to be an artist. I can’t remember a specific day that I decided and chose acting, but I always knew that this was what I was going to do. I was going to be an Egyptian star, even though I am a Palestinian. Then, the “bug” just grew more and more, to find a way to the stage that a small Palestinian village lacks.

Bakchormeeboy: You’ve mentioned that doing political art in a smart way can be done without being explicitly political, which I believe you do manage to do by focusing so much on Taha as a human, and his life beyond just his poetry. There’s a central story about focusing on triumph instead of tragedy – do you feel such narratives resonate more with audiences than the latter?

Amer: I think that art should always deal with issues and stories that can ask questions about how we understand the issue or the case, the role of art is to open the imagination and ask questions, we are not needed to provide answers, politicians were invented to provide answers. So when art want to deal with political story or issue, the best way to let audiences try to find their ways to the answers about it, is to avoid telling them what they need to think, or what they should think and understand.

I am a Palestinian and I have my political views about my people’s case, but in the theatre, I prefer to let the audience have the freedom to think and feel and understand while they are enjoying the performance. Of course, I want them to understand the story from my side, but I asthe artist have no right to force my opinion on them. I don’t feel that I need to convince them to be on my side, because I will lose some of them quickly, i need to be convinced by what I am telling them and let them be able to discover alone what is behind the lines because they are smart enough to do so. Political art doesn’t last, but stories like Taha last more even though they are created in a very political place and from a person who has something to say about politics.

Bakchormeeboy: There are some plays that require little to no background historical knowledge, but Taha exists in a world that is shaped by the Arab-Israeli conflict, particularly the Nakba of 1948 which features strongly within the play as well. Is there ever an intention to shed light or educate audience members who may not be familiar with the history behind the conflict?  

Amer: Of course, I want to share my stories, our stories, Palestinians with the whole world, and this is not because I am Palestinian, it is because I am a human being and an artist. But especially as a Palestinian, it is more important in my eyes to share the story of my people, because it is not easy to share a Palestinian story in the world, it has no place yet on the mainstream platforms, it is a hot button issue in many places. It is not education that is the goal for me, it is opening windows to people so they can look from them and invite them to look for more if they are interested. Taha is not a history lesson, but it is a very international piece of theatre that allows you to know about a specific place and time.

Bakchormeeboy: Good art is both very personal and very international at the same time. How much of yourself do you put into the play, or how much distance do you choose to put between yourself and Taha – in short, how much subjectivity and objectivity comes into play when telling this story?

Amer: Creating art is very subjective, the drive to this needs to come from a very personal reason, in Taha the drive was to understand myself, i was born to a displaced family, and this aspect is in my DNA, it will never leave me, even though i didn’t experience it personally… I always think of “what if?”; what if I was born to a family that remained in their original place? Or you were forced to move to Lebanon and stay there? Or was raised in a refugee camp? Or had to flee to a foreign country?

These are some of the Palestinian destinies and it could happen to my family after the Nakba. For me, Taha is an attempt to answer some questions about my formation through Taha’s story, which is a copy-paste, similar to my grandfather’s story. Now, your personal reasons for creating art are not enough to spread it out, you need to sense the components that might be interesting to others in your story, Taha is not the first or last story about a person who was displaced and lost his beloved ones, his home, his shop, his family and his country, but didn’t lose the dream. History is full of similar stories, and we all have lost things and know the pain of loss, and so, I tried to emphasise the meaning of the events he passes and not to prove them or explain them.  

Bakchormeeboy: Taha is a very stripped-down show that’s dependent almost completely on storytelling and charisma. Can we still expect to see a similar format adopted, without the use of too much tech or bells and whistles? To you then, is the essence of theatre almost entirely rooted in performance?

Amer: I am not against bells and whistles, i think each piece of theatre demands different treatment, but the important thing for me in live performance is the human souls that are creating it, and bells and whistles won’t make any performance better if the performance is not worthy to follow. People gather in the theatre to have an experience that can move them, awaken their senses, grow their imagination and let them ask questions about themselves and the world they are living in. This can’t happen with effects and bells alone, this can happen with the only truth in the room, the living souls. So, I believe that the main battle on stage to win the audience’s heart is through the truth of your performance, and most of the time you don’t need any bells or whistles to reach that, you need skills to deliver the heart of the story and you need to fill the venue with truth and imagination.

Bakchormeeboy: While Taha has been for the most part, very well-received, has there ever been any pushback or criticisms received from either reviewers or general audience members? How do you deal with such criticism, especially those that may be opposed to its content or stem from their own prejudices they may have?

Amer: No one performance on earth satisfied all audiences or critics, and this is the beauty of making art, there is no way to reach full acceptance, ever. This gives you the need and the hunger to try again and again. Creating art is like following your shadow, it always will be there, but you will never catch it. And so, while Taha got criticism, I am so happy that there were few of them, I accept them the same way I accept good reviews, even though I am not dancing when I read them.

Bakchormeeboy: It’s been 10 years since Taha first premiered, and in the current climate where Palestine has been thrust into the global conversation, is there something different about what you hope audience members feel or think about when they walk away from the show?

Amer: The Palestinian suffering started at least 75 years ago, and we are witnessing today a very tough round of suffering in Gaza. And to be honest I don’t know yet what will be different for me this time, as this is the first time I am going to perform the play since the war started. I hope the play will emphasise that the Palestinians are people with dreams, not just headlines in the media and that they deserve a respectful and rightful life and future. 

TAHA plays from 2nd to 14th April 2024 at KC Arts Centre. Tickets available here