And Here I Am

And Here I Am is an extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey rooted in the lived experience of Palestinian actor Ahmed Tobasi. Set against the backdrop of the First and Second Intifada, the play unfolds through the battle-scarred streets of the Jenin Refugee Camp — a place where childhood is cut short, where survival demands impossible choices, and where identity is shaped in the shadow of occupation.

Written by award-winning playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak, the piece masterfully blends fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy, and the deeply personal with the sharply political. We witness Tobasi’s evolution: from a young boy swept into armed resistance, to a prisoner navigating the brutality and absurdity of incarceration, to an artist discovering the radical power of theatre as a form of cultural resistance. His life becomes a testament to endurance — a refusal to be silenced or erased.

Performed by Tobasi himself with raw honesty and wry humour, the play shifts rapidly between tones and characters, offering a vivid portrait of a community under siege and a man constantly reinventing himself to survive it. With the Israeli army once again invading Jenin Refugee Camp, And Here I Am reverberates with immediacy — not just as a reflection on the past, but as a fierce reminder of the struggles unfolding in the present.

Intimate, urgent, and deeply human, this is a story of defiance, identity, and the unbreakable pursuit of freedom.