Showtime from the Frontline

In 2018 Mark takes his recent attempt to set up a comedy club in a refugee camp in Palestine and turns it into a performance with two of the aspiring Palestinian comics, Fasial and Alaa. Showtime From The Frontline is the story of trying to be yourself in a place where everyone wants to put you in a box. It’s funny and surprising and it’s not like anything else you’ll see this year. Directed by Red Shed’s Joe Douglas, the tour starts in February.

With Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa Shehada  | Directed by Joe Douglas

Dodging cultural and literal bullets, Israeli incursions and religion, Mark Thomas and his team set out to run a comedy club for two nights in the Palestinian city of Jenin. Only to find it’s not so simple to celebrate freedom of speech in a place with so little freedom.

Jenin refugee camp, home to Jenin Freedom Theatre and to people with a wealth of stories to tell. Mark tells this story alongside two of its actors and aspiring comics Faisal Abu Alhayjaa and Alaa Shehada. A story about being yourself in a place that wants to put you in a box.

OurNHS@ 70

is an analysis – and celebration – of the NHS as it turns 70. Directed by Nick Kent, former artistic director at the Tricycle Theatre and director of Guantanamo and The Colour of Justice about the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the show will premiere in Edinburgh in August. Beforehand, as part of the show, Mark is conducting a number of public interviews with key individuals. The first will be on 11th Dec at Battersea Arts Centre, London where Mark will be interviewing Sir Michael Marmot, author of Fair Society, Healthy Lives on health, wealth and why some people are doomed to live shorter lives. Tickets are £2.50.