There are a good many differences between Stalin’s Moscow of 1945 and the green hills of the West Bank 64 years later. But that hasn’t stopped an ambitious group of theatre people and enthusiastic Palestinian students from finding plenty of relevance in George Orwell’s scathing allegory of the post-revolutionary Soviet Union, Animal Farm.

I was impressed by their craft and also the big ideas that lie behind the production by the newly established Theatre School at the Freedom Theatre in the long troubled refugee camp at Jenin.

You can learn more about the theatre project here and read our story on the staging of Animal Farm by the young actors, at least one of whom says he is waging a “cultural Intifada” after spending years on the run from Israeli occupying forces for his role in the violent Intifada, or uprising, in the early years of this decade. Better still, why not go and see the play? Set amid the freshly watered green hills of the northern West Bank, Jenin can be an especially pleasant place at this time of year. Probably easier than Moscow in 1945…