"The Invaders' Fear of Memories, is both an urgently needed piece of history and an extraordinary work of art. With gorgeous, stirring songs in Ukrainian, Yiddish, Hebrew and Arabic woven throughout, The Invaders' Fear of Memories' confronts us with the tragic cycles of history in which we are still caught. It could not be more relevant in today's violent world.”  – Jo Salas, Author and co-founder of Playback Theatre, New York.

The Invaders’ Fear of Memories is a solo theatre piece based on the life and diaries of Yousef Nachmani - a Russian Jew who migrated from Tsarist Russia to Ottoman Palestine in 1907. Nachmani became Director of the Jewish National Fund in the Galilee and subsequently played a central role in the ethnic cleansing of thousands of Palestine’s indigenous inhabitants. The play offers a perspective into the origins of settler-colonialism and apartheid in modern day Israel, exploring themes of loyalty, violence, ideology and grief. The Invaders’ Fear of Memories is performed by Ben Rivers, the great grandson of Nachmani. Over the course of the play, Rivers performs 12 characters and sings in Arabic, Hebrew, Ukrainian and Yiddish. The production is directed by Linda Wise, an original member of the iconic Roy Hart Theatre Company.  Since August 2023 The Invaders’ Fear of Memories has been performed to diverse audiences around the world.

Written and performed by Benjamin Rivers
Directed by Linda Wise

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
> 5 October 2024: Auditório Camões, Lisbon, Portugal
> 10 October 2024: An Taibhdhearc, Galway, Ireland
> 15 October 2024: Cork Arts Theatre, Cork, Ireland
> 7 November 2024: Annexe Theatre, Launceston, Australia
> 15 - 16 November 2024: The MC Showroom, Melbourne, Australia
> 21 - 23 November 2024: Ralph Wilson Theatre, Canberra, Australia
> TBD February 2025: University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA

PAST PERFORMANCES
> 20 August 2023: Centre Artistique International Roy Hart, France
> 24 August 2023: Centre Artistique International Roy Hart, France  
> 20 September 2023: Centre Artistique International Roy Hart, France     
> 30 November 2023: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
> 1 December 2023: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
> 7 December 2023: International Playback Theatre Conference, South Africa     
> 13 March 2024: University of Tasmania, Australia    
> 31 May 2024: Escola Oficial de Idiomas de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
> 7 July 2024: Centre Artistique International Roy Hart, Thoiras, France
> 23 August 2024: Centre Artistique International Roy Hart, Thoiras, France

ABOUT YOUSEF NACHMANI 
Yousef Nachmani was born in 1891 as Yousef Agranovsky to a Jewish family in Oleksandria, Russia (now Oleksandria, Ukraine). At the age of 15, Yousef, along with his father and brother, were arrested by Russian authorities for their involvement in Poale Zion, a militant group that advocated Zionist ideology. In 1907 Yousef fled to Ottoman Palestine where he joined an urban commune in Jerusalem whose members included David Ben-Gurion and other future Zionist leaders. In 1911 Yousef moved to the Galilee, where he became an early member of Hashomer, a Jewish defence organisation responsible for guarding Jewish settlements in the Yishuv. Yousef later went on to become a senior officer in Haganah and then Director of the Jewish National Fund in Eastern Galilee. In this role, Yousef acquired Arab lands for the Jewish National Fund, often secretly and with the assistance of Arab collaborators. From 1935, Yousef began a diary that documented his own involvement in the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. Yousef Nachmani is the great grandfather of Benjamin Rivers.

TITLE
The title for this play, ‘The Invaders’ Fear of Memories’, is a line taken from ‘On this Land’, a poem by the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish.