Application 39
Ahmed Masoud
English Touring Theatre
Aviva Studios, Manchester
October 9-10, 2026; 90 mins, no interval (note 7pm start)
In Ahmed Masoud’s Application 39, two young IT workers employed by Gaza’s municipality prank the International Olympic Committee’s bidding process. Their digital hack takes an extraordinary turn when their "bid" inadvertently wins Gaza the right to host the 39th Summer Olympics – exactly a century after the Nakba (the 1948 clearing of Palestine by Israelis).
What follows is a surreal collision of bureaucracy, occupation, regional politics and reconstruction. Masoud blends dark comedy with political resistance, daring to imagine a hopeful future while weaving in heartbreaking real-life testimonies.
A pre-show talk with Ahmed and director Cressida Brown deepens the experience. We hear of Gaza’s artists’ extraordinary resilience and determination not to be silenced. Ahmed explained that writing in a tent in Jabalia refugee camp seems absurd when you may not wake the next morning. Nine people had died in strikes on Gaza that day.
Written as a short story in 2018, Application 39 became a radio play broadcast by West German Broadcasting at the 2022 Olympics, with a promise to revisit it at every Games. Yet it was silenced during the 2024 Paris Olympiad... Brown reflected on a slow, fragile shift in some institutions’ willingness to share Palestinian stories, perhaps mirroring wider tiny changes in political attitudes.
The play is part-satire, part-documentary, part-verbatim theatre. Real-life stories, gathered first-hand from family and witnesses on the ground a realistic presence in the absence of journalist reports, since Israel has relentlessly targeted and killed reporters.
Masoud’s text is delivered with precision and ingenuity under Cressida Brown’s direction. The cast’s bond is magnetic. Everyday absurdities – arms abruptly held stiff and aloft at checkpoints, silhouetted against tall lighting towers – become chillingly normalised.
James El-Sharawy and Sama Rantisi are compelling as Rayyan and Selma. Their razor-sharp performances as two nine-year-old neighbours, injured amid rubble after a raid and asking, "what happens when we die?" are deeply painful. Amid scattered children’s plastic chairs, perhaps from a school, this scene will stay with me, as will the haunting reminder that Dr Hassan Abu Safiya is still held hostage.
The performances are deeply drawn and understood and never overdramatised; there is no need when the fragility of life is so evident.
Nadia Dawber plays Lamma with an outstanding story-telling instinct, delivering Masoud’s words almost as poetry and layering Lamma’s lived experience with nuanced expression. From early on, Ghantus Wael’s precision as the President gives us permission to laugh, and there are wonderfully funny moments. Who knew international geopolitics, "sportwashing" and IT could provoke such laughter?
Masoud’s satire balances humour and pain with great skill, though a little judicious editing might preserve the surreal, intense short-story feel. But a more intimate, claustrophobic space is needed - not the sprawling, wide stage of the Aviva Hall, though full marks to Factory International for hosting and providing captioning (but the bright, obtrusive stage-level screens directly in front of us need a drastic rethink).
Charlotte Espiners’ set is strikingly simple: lighting towers suggest checkpoints in this dystopian, not-so-distant future, while a circle of sand evokes the ancient land and provides a dramatic base for Imogen Clarke’s intense lighting. Clarke isn't afraid to plunge us into darkness, bathed in Ed Lewis’s haunting sound world.
Application 39 highlights the unimaginable interruption of life, while the Olympics become a dream and a demand that Gaza’s people be seen beyond the headlines. The laughter never lets us forget what is at stake.
Above all, this is a story of hope and a fearless act of art as activism: a direct petition to us all to keep speaking out for those denied a platform.
More info and tickets here
