Paprika Celebrates World Theatre Day

On World Theatre Day 2026, we are thinking of the artists and audiences around the world that are not able to safely create and witness theatre due to war and other forms of oppression. 

Suppressing art and culture is a tool of erasure. In Canada, there is a long history of banning Indigenous culture and languages as a means of colonialism and genocide. 

Article 27 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” 

As theatre artists, we stand in solidarity with theatre artists in Palestine, where cultural production is under direct attack. In Jenin, in the West Bank, members of The Freedom Theatre’s artistic leadership were violently arrested without charge in 2023. The Freedom Theatre was forced to close its doors in early 2025, when the refugee camp where it is located was attacked and occupied by the Israeli army. In November 2025, the El-Hakawati Theater in Jerusalem was raided during a performance of "Dreams Under the Olive Tree," a musical featuring children and teenagers, leaving audience members and performers in tears. 

We know that groups that are directly complicit in Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine are funding theatre in Canada. These relationships contribute to the art-washing of Israel's genocide, the censorship of Palestinian artists and those in solidarity with them, and most egregiously - the dehumanization of Palestinian people. 

In conversation with Canadian theatre artists in 2026, Rawand Arqawi, Artistic Producer of Fragments Theatre in Jenin, said, "Palestinian artists do not create from outside the reality we depict; we live under occupation ourselves. We face the suppression of our freedom of expression, including arrest, harassment, and intimidation, as well as severe restrictions on movement and travel. And yet, we persist in our cultural work as an act of resilience and resistance."

From Turtle Island to Palestine, Sudan to the Congo, Iran to Ukraine, and beyond, we stand together to protect the human right to create and enjoy theatre. 

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●Follow and support Palestinian artists and theatres (suggestions: @shathaya_fragmentstheatre_, @thefreedomtheatre, @elhakawatitheatre, @artistsonthefrontline, @ashtartheatre)

●Learn more about and help advocate for the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)