Children’s theatre performances from around the world are scheduled to be held at the Haya Cultural Centre starting Thursday to mark its 40th anniversary (Photos courtesy of Haya Cultural Centre)

AMMAN — The Haya Cultural Centre (HCC) will mark its 40th anniversary with a month of children’s theatre performances from around the world, according to the centre’s general manager, Diala Khamra. Opening on Thursday, the Haya Theatre Festival will feature performances from Lebanon, Spain and Denmark, in addition to a joint performance from the UK and Jordan supported by the British Council, Khamra told The Jordan Times in a recent phone interview. 

 

The festival supports the centre’s vision to build a specialised theatre for children and to make live theatre accessible to children and families all year round, according to the general manager. 

 

Earlier this year, the cultural centre launched its family theatre repertory, completing three seasons so far.

 

So far, performances have included “The journey of Tartoush”, “Fairouz the pomegranate girl” and “A cub unlike any other”, Khamra said. 

 

“Since its establishment in 1976, Haya centre has played a pioneering role in the field of children’s theatre. Puppet and specialised plays and performances were produced by the centre... in addition to international partnerships with foreign theatres to produce joint performances,” the manager said. 

 

The upcoming festival will feature performances of “Full moon”, by Lebanese writer and director Karim Dakroub, “A Mano” (By Hand) brought by the Spanish El Patio Teatro, “Song of the whale” from Teatret Om in Denmark, and “Seesaw”, a Unicorn production adapted and re-produced in collaboration with the HCC. 

 

To make the programmes accessible to a wider and more inclusive audience, two of the performances, “A Mano” and “Seesaw”, will be deaf-friendly as they do not include as much dialogue as the other plays, according to Khamra.

 

Performances will be staged at the HCC between Thursday and Sunday for four weeks, in the morning and the afternoon.

 

Some shows are for public school children, supported by the private sector.

 

Performance dates, times and tickets are available at Karasi.com or at the HCC in Shmeisani.