THEM

Touring July 29 - September 8 2022: dates, venues and tickets at this link.

Written by Samah Sabawi, directed by Bagryana Popov 
Originally produced by Lara Week and Samah Sabawi, in collaboration with La Mama Theatre
2021-2 remount and tour produced by Lara Week, La Mama Theatre, and Critical Stages Touring

THEM is a play by Samah Sabawi, writer of the award-winning Tales of a City by the Sea, based on stories from and interviews with people living in conflict zones and displaced by war. Caught in a city at war, Omar, Leila, and their young child count down the days before a boat sails to a safer place. The journey will come at a cost. Is it a cost they are prepared to pay? 

In 2019, THEM had its world premiere at La Mama Courthouse directed by award-winning director Bagryana Popov. The production had an incredible response: tickets for the whole season sold out two weeks before opening night; three additional performances sold out the same day tickets were released. The show received passionate responses from audiences, and five-star reviews in national media. 

THEM returned briefly to stages in 2021 as part of the VCE Theatre Studies Playlist, with performances for two wonderful audiences at Riverlinks Westside in Shepparton before the tour was cut short by the public health crisis.

In 2022, THEM is touring NSW, VIC and QLD from July 27- September 8.

The play has won the Green Room Independent Theatre Award for Best Writing, been nominated for three other Green Room Awards including Best Independent Production, and been shortlisted for the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Literary Award as well as the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

“A drama dappled with humanity and humour amid the horrors of war.” 
★★★★
– Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald

“There is no amount of praise that is sufficient to heap on Samah Sabawi’s writing and Bagryana Popov’s directing […] Perhaps the most important piece of theatre you will see this year.” 
★★★★★
– Irene Ball, The Music

“[This] warm, moving play […] is a welcome antidote to common images of the Middle East as a region beset with terrorism and violence.”
– Kate Herbert, Herald Sun