Following its premiere in Palestine in 2022, MILK مِلْك – a captivatingly unique visual theatre experience – is coming to the Abbey Theatre next month for an extremely limited run of eight performances, from February 20 to March 1.

Created by Palestinian artists Bashar Murkus and Khulood Basel, and performed by independent Palestinian theatre company Khashabi Theatre, MILK مِلْك is a powerful exploration of disaster – specifically, how humanity copes with it, and what's left behind in its aftermath.

Described as a 'visual poem', MILK مِلْك's special Abbey Theatre run has been tipped as an experience not to miss, with tickets already selling fast.

“When I first saw MILK مِلْك at the Festival d’Avignon, it felt like seeing a group of strangers trying to put a world back together," reflects Caitríona McLaughlin, Artistic Director/Co-Director of the Abbey Theatre. "I wanted to programme this theatrical experience for Irish audiences because it says so much about the impact of war.

"When we read the headlines, in our focus on who is fighting, we forget about who gets left behind," she continues. "Those are often women and children. In the absence of their sons, their brothers, their husbands, this work is a tribute to lost motherhood, to the mothers of the lost, and how they are trying to foster a new world without their children."

Photo: Eid Adawi

The performance, McLaughlin notes, is both "powerful and determined."

"We see a man battling himself, until he is drained of every ounce of his energy and strength," she resumes. "The audience feels this with him in a powerful act of empathy. In the face of any horror, there’s nothing more potent than the determination to succeed, to create an alternative.”

Khashabi Theatre, based in Haifa, was co-founded by Bashar Murkus, a playwright/director, and Khulood Basel, a creative producer/dramaturge, alongside a group of fellow Palestinian theatre-makers.

The independent theatre company – which is making its eagerly anticipated Irish debut with MILK مِلْك at the Abbey, Ireland's National Theatre – serves as a space that challenges societal, political and artistic taboos, while working towards a society in which art and creativity is practised freely.

Photo: Khulood Basel

Although MILK مِلْك is not centred on one specific place, conflict or disaster, it sheds an emotive and timely light on the experience of living through devastation.

“Three years ago, we thought we had succeeded in MILK مِلْك creating a 'theatrical poem about what wars leave behind,'" Bashar Murkus and Khulood Basel comment. "But over the past three years, as ‘real wars’ have crushed people before our eyes and stolen everything they love, we have come to realise how incapable theatre is of capturing even a single moment of war.”

The Abbey Theatre's presentation of MILK مِلْك is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs – with Micheál Martin welcoming the partnership.

"I am sure these important performances will facilitate deeper Irish engagement with Palestinian culture and give voice to the Palestinian people in these difficult times," he remarked.

Tickets for MILK مِلْك – running from February 20 to March 1 at the Abbey Theatre – start at €15, and are selling fast. Book your tickets here.

Photo: Eid Adawi