BITTERENDERS by Hannah Khalil

ACHMED: You think they want to share with Arabs . . . They’re biding their time, waiting and as soon as we get complacent they’ll attack again and we’ll be out on the street. I don’t want to live in a tent like a refugee. This is my house. 

A family in East Jerusalem lives in a house set to be demolished. Somewhere between existential comedy and utter tragedy the family makes do, with the ghosts of exile behind them and the threat of exile in front of them. 

A writer of Palestinian-Irish heritage, Hannah's stage plays include critically acclaimed Scenes from 68* Years which was shortlisted for the James Tait Black award 2017 : “confirms Khalil as a dramatist of compelling potential” –  Daily Telegraph (Arcola Theatre, London, 2016), The Scar Test “Political theatre at its best” (Soho theatre, London), The Worst Cook in the West Bank (Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival), Bitterenders (winner Sandpit Arts’ Bulbul 2013, performed at Golden Thread Theatre's ReOrient Festival in San Francisco, 2015), Plan D (Tristan Bates Theatre, nominated for the Meyer Whitworth Award),  Leaving Home (The King's Head) and Ring (Soho Theatre London's Westminster Prize).

Hannah's radio plays include Last of the Pearl Fishers and The Deportation Room, both for BBC Radio 4. Plan D is published in the USA as part of Inside/Outside: Six plays from Palestine and the Diaspora edited by Naomi Wallace and Ismail Khalidi; and Bitterenders forms part of Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas published in 2016 by Playwrights Canada Press, while Scenes from 68* Years is featured in Routledge USA’s second volume of Plays by Women of Color.  Hannah’s first short film The Record is in post-production having been awarded the Tommy Vine Award at the Underwire Festival 2015. Hannah was recipient of the Arab British Centre’s Award for Culture in 2017.