TEAM

Concept, Text, and Direction: Samar Haddad King
Choreography: Samar Haddad King
in collaboration with Yousef Sbieh and Mohammad Smahneh
Live Performance: Yousef Sbieh and Mohammad Smahneh
Voiceover actors: More information coming soon
Original music: Hisham Abu Jabal
Sound Design: Samar Haddad King
Puppet Design and Construction: Sipho Ngxola
Dramaturgy and Puppet Direction: Enrico Dau Yang Wey 
Assistant Director: Haidi Ahmad
Lighting Designer: Muaz Al Jubeh
Props and Costumes: Nancy Mkaabal

Creative Producer: Zoe Rabinowitz
Representation: Lamia Zanna/Sens Interdits
Production Manager: Frances Caperchi
Produced by: Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre & Sens Interdits

TOURING INFORMATION
Cast: 2
Touring Company: 4-5
Duration of work: 55-65 minutes (no intermission)
TECHNICAL RIDER: coming soon

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Available in January 2026

shabaab*, is a full-length performance by Samar Haddad King celebrating the intimacy, beauty, and tenderness of Arab male friendship. In a land where shared dreams and struggles are often overshadowed by the structural obstacles and systemic violence of occupation, the strength and sweetness of their bond is what helps these boys grow into men. 

In this duet we traverse a lifetime of friendship between Mohamed and Mahmoud, whose story unfolds in a space where memory and reality intertwine. Their live action present is refracted through a pair of puppets, designed by Sipho Ngxola, who represent the two men as children, as dreams of themselves, as the selves they could have been under different circumstances.

Through the puppets the men speak, the hand-operated figurines embodying the emotional expression so often denied their real-life counterparts. In Arabic with English/French subtitles, the story moves between the external world of the present and the internal world of dream, emotion, and memory where alternative lives, and futures, are still possible. Using puppetry and text interwoven with a playful and explosive movement score, and featuring compositions on guitar by Hisham Abu Jabal and sound designed by Samar Haddad King, shabaab is a visceral embodiment of love, friendship, and the impossible weight of a lifetime spent under siege.

*“shabaab” means “youth” in Arabic.