Js Hartley / Sharif Abdunnur
Laughter Under the Bombs is intended both as a livingtestimony to the horrors of surviving under war conditions and as adramatherapy handbook. The book documents day by day a dramtherapist’s feelingsas the war takes hold in Lebanon in July 2006 and his amazingly successfulattempts to set up a safe space for displaced children and teens to participatein drama workshops. These workshops are aimed at helping the youth to deal with the horrors of war and find a wayto heal the mental and psychological wounds that mark them long after anyphysical wounds. We all have heard much of thewar through the eyes of the media but this often removes us from the humanityand the inhumane suffering involved on a day-to-day basis. This book takes usthrough that suffering with individual stories of pain and suffering, yetalways emphasises the need to find time and space for laughter to survive suchhorrors. These documented workshops also resulted in theopening of a theatre production, literally under the shelling, talking abouttheir experiences as they lived them. The internationally acclaimed play, alsoentitled Laughter Under the Bombs, caught the world’s attention in the midst ofthe war. The show went on literally under thebombs, the area was under threat - it was announced each night about two hoursbefore the show as planes dropped fliers to say that the area would be targetedthat night... and yet... the play opened to a full house and the laughterdrowned out the deafening noise of the bombing right outside the doors of the theatre.Also included in this unique publication is anessay and commentary by dramatherapist and playwright JS Hartley whose theatre workand publications have received international acclaim. 3
