Keepers of Infinite Space
‘You’ve got to learn when to throw your punches – when they least expect it. There’s no use flailing in the dark. This is where battles are raged – and wars won.’
Saeed is a bookseller in Nablus. His father Khalil is a property developer. They’re just an ordinary family, quietly building a new Palestine. Until one day Saeed is arrested and thrown into gaol. Ashis future disappears, Saeed finds that the answer to his problems may lie in the past, and in the secrets his father has kept from him…
Since the Israeli occupation in 1967, Palestine has become a nation of prisons. Up to 40% of the male population have been detained under military orders. Virtually every family has seen at least one relative put behind bars, and entire generations have grown up facing the prospect of the cell. With the release of political prisoners a key part of the current peace process, The Keepers of Infinite Space explores the dynamics of the Israeli prison system to reveal its fraught legacy for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Omar El-Khairy is the 2013 Leverhulme Associate Playwright at the Bush Theatre and has previously collaborated with the Royal Court, the Soho Theatre, Theatre503, the Arcola, the Lyric and Old Vic New Voices (T. S. Eliot UK/US Exchange). His plays include Burst (produced through Paper Tiger), Sour Lips (commissioned as part of the Counter-Culture season at Ovalhouse) and Given the Times, which was commissioned in 2011 as part of Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights. He is currently developing two new plays: Soft Sands, a story of friendship and solidarity set within the world of Gazan smuggling tunnels, and For Queen & Country, a black comedy about British identity in these times of global securitocracy. Omar is also a writer as part of the Bush/Kudos scheme for 2013.