Our Corporate Sponsors
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With support from
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★★★★ “POWERFUL” – The Stage
★★★★★ “ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS PRODUCTION” – Forge Press
★★★★ “ESSENTIAL” – Theatre and Tonic
★★★★ “GRIPPING” – Sheffield Magazin
Set in five prisons across five decades, LINES looks at postcolonial lives in Uganda, Palestine and the UK. This brand new drama has been selected as one of the Guardian’s “Best Theatre Tickets to Book” for 2024.
Created by John Rwothomack (Uganda/UK) Junaid Sarieddeen (Lebanon), Fidaa Zidan (Palestine) and Alex Aron (U.S.) with additional writing by Asiimwe Deborah Kawe (Uganda)
Direction and Dramaturgy by Junaid Sarieddeen
Performed by John Rwothomack & Fidaa Zidan
Premiere Sheffield, England Feb. 29th and
LaMaMa Theatre, NYC
April 25- May 12, 2024
co-produced with Roots Mbili Theatre & Sheffield Theatres
Junaid Sarieddeen is a theatre actor, director, dramaturge, founding member of Beirut-based Zoukak Theatre Company (2006) and member of the Sundance board of trustees (2019-2022). He has directed several theatre plays with Zoukak and other artists and performed in more than 30 productions in the past 22 years, touring in multiple cities and festivals around the world. He holds a BA in Theatre, a BA in Philosophy, and a Masters in Research in Theatre.
Photos by Smart Banda
Fidaa Zidan is a Palestinian actress and writer from the Galilee region of Palestine. She received a B.A. in Social Theater from Haifa University, and an MFA from Tel-Aviv University. Recent performance credits include: THE WALK WITH AMAL (puppeteer, Turkey, Europe, UK, and New York), Amir Nizar Zuabi’s GREY ROCK (New York, US, and Australia), AGAINST A HARD SURFACE (Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre), WEST OF US THE SEA, THE STONE IS OUR SIGN by Dian Traivs, THE FREEDOM BUS (The Freedom Theatre), MIRE (a musical, Faraj Suliman, Amir Nizar Zuabi). She wrote and performed in her own production, THE LAST DAY OF SPRING. Filmography includes Polygraph and Another Point of View.
Currently, Zidan teaches Spoken Word at the Freedom Theatre Drama School.
John Rwothomack is an Uganda-born, London-trained, and Sheffield-bred and based actor and director. As an artist, John aims to bring African stories and culture to the canvas of theatre. Training: Rose Bruford; Acting: I WONDER IF... (Young Vic Theatre, 2022), FAR GONE (Sheffield Theatres 2022 UK tour & Theatre Deli Sheffield 2019), H&P, ON MISSING, (The Cockpit Theatre, London 2019), Dr Bupe, TALES FROM THE PLAYGROUND, (Paper Finch Theatre, Sheffield 2018), Priest, THE DEVIL IN MARY (short film York, 2017), Witch Doctor, THE EMPEROR JONES, (The Lost Theatre, London 2016), John Blanke, THE LOW ROAD, (Stratford Circus, London 2015); Playwright: FAR GONE; Director: BAD BLOOD BLUES (Theatre Deli, 2018), ALLY (short film, 2020); Assistant Director: THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (Sheffield Theatres, 2020), WHITE NOISE (The Bridge Theatre, 2021).
Alexandra Aron is the Producing Artistic Director of RTP and a NY-based director. Productions include: King of the Jews by Leslie Epstein starring Richard Topol at HERE (NYC). A Night in the Old Marketplace, by Frank London & Glen Berger (São Paulo, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Toronto, Milan, MASS MoCA, NYTF and Bard SummerScape), Naked Old Man by Murray Schisgal (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Imagining Madoff by Deb Margolin (Theater J, DC), and Salomé: Woman of Valor by Adeena Karasick/F.London (Vancouver, Toronto, ART’s Oberon Theater). She also directed a short film, “Two Altars and a Cave” (2013) starring Lois Smith, and will direct “The Mulberry Tree” by Hanna Eady and Ed Mast at La MaMa Theater in 2024.
Asiimwe Deborah Kawe a.k.a Deborah Asiimwe was born in Kiruhura, in South Western Uganda. She is an award-winning playwright, producer and performer. Currently, the Artistic Director of the Kampala International Theatre Festival, Asiimwe has worked with the Sundance Institute Theatre Program; dividing her time between New York City and East Africa, she led the East Africa initiative, a program that covered the countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda for six years, and she continues to be associated with the Institute on its new initiative in North Africa and the Middle East.
Ms. Kawe received a Diploma in Music, Dance and Drama, a B. A. in Theatre and Performing Arts from Makerere University in Kampala-Uganda, and an M.F.A. in Writing for Performance from the California Institute of the Arts. Ms. Asiimwe’s recent plays include Forgotten World, Cooking Oil, Appointment with gOD, Un-entitled, Do they Know it’s Khristmas? to mention but a few.
photo Zahara Abdul
