Laughter Under the Bombs

Laughter Under the Bombs is intended both as a living
testimony to the horrors of surviving under war conditions and as a
dramatherapy handbook. The book documents day by day a dramtherapist's feelings
as the war takes hold in Lebanon in July 2006 and his amazingly successful
attempts to set up a safe space for displaced children and teens to participate
in drama workshops. These workshops are aimed at helping the youth to deal with the horrors of war and find a way
to heal the mental and psychological wounds that mark them long after any
physical wounds.



We all have heard much of the
war through the eyes of the media but this often removes us from the humanity
and the inhumane suffering involved on a day-to-day basis. This book takes us
through that suffering with individual stories of pain and suffering, yet
always emphasises the need to find time and space for laughter to survive such
horrors.



These documented workshops also resulted in the
opening of a theatre production, literally under the shelling, talking about
their experiences as they lived them. The internationally acclaimed play, also
entitled Laughter Under the Bombs, caught the world's attention in the midst of
the war. The show went on literally under the
bombs, the area was under threat - it was announced each night about two hours
before the show as planes dropped fliers to say that the area would be targeted
that night... and yet... the play opened to a full house and the laughter
drowned out the deafening noise of the bombing right outside the doors of the theatre.




Also included in this unique publication is an
essay and commentary by dramatherapist and playwright JS Hartley whose theatre work
and publications have received international acclaim.