A Stage of One’s Own

Abstract

Taking Al-Harah Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Sisters as its point of departure, this chapter broadens the analytical framework by reflecting on feminist contributions to counterpublic formation in Palestine. Challenging the patriarchal roles that Palestinian society assigns to women, feminist theatre in Palestine allows us to see abject counterpublics as polyvalent social formations. Moreover, this chapter employs a ‘border thinking’ approach to engage with three different discursive and representational elements featured in Shakespeare’s Sisters: the representations of women in the Palestinian nationalist discourse; the homeplace as a counter-space where Israeli control and Palestinian patriarchal norms are challenged and disordered; and the play’s invocation of women’s liberation through discourses that lie outside the mainstream agenda of international development and human rights.