September 23rd, 2026The Return: love, grief

People are invited to experience The Return, an intimate and deeply human theatre work exploring love, grief, memory and the enduring bonds between parents and children.

The play will feature at Castlemaine’s Phee Broadway Theatre on Tuesday, September 22 from 6.30pm.

Inspired by the true story of Marwan Abu Samra, a Palestinian father from Gaza whose two daughters, Rozan and Nagham, were killed in Gaza, The Return brings a human face to a story that can too easily be encountered from a distance through headlines and statistics. Rather than asking audiences to come with a particular understanding of Gaza or the conflict, the play invites people to simply enter one family’s story: to consider what it means to lose those we love, how memory stays with us, and how people continue to search for hope and connection in the face of unimaginable loss.

In this way, The Return speaks beyond one place or one conflict. Its themes will resonate with communities around the world, including here in regional Victoria, where families can carry their own histories of migration, war, separation, displacement and loss. Palestinian-Australian playwright, filmmaker and director Ala’a Al Qaisi describes The Return as her way of leaving a mark through storytelling and preserving the humanity behind events that can otherwise be reduced to numbers. Above, Mohammed El Kesm (left) and Ala’a Al Qaisi (right) Tickets: www.events.humanitix.com/the-return-play-melbourne/tickets Link: www.thereturnproject.com.au 2pm.

darkness.”

community.