The Wholly-Water

The jury's
conclusion

The jury finds The Wholly-Water to be an exciting project. An art-project that, inspired by Ibsen’s Brand, examines contemporary systems of moral absolutism, militarized state power, and silenced dissent. Developed into a near‑water, site‑specific performance and ritual to create an immersive, tactile experience. Dafa Theatre’s background and artistic composition present a compelling fusion of traditional Czech object‑theatre with influences from Arab visual and musical aesthetics. The work combines objects, bodies, live music, in all over intriguing combinations. The visual material, including figures and installations, particularly impressed the jury for its depth, poetry, and artistic quality. The project carries an implicit engagement for Palestine and the ongoing war in Gaza. Brand’s uncompromising “all or nothing” becomes an artistic engine when placed against the backdrop of militarism and conflict. The jury is moved by the company’s insistence on art as a possibility—creating sensory physical encounters, and rituals as ways of public reflections. With strong visual and tactile expressions at its core, the project demonstrates the continued relevance of art as an active and driving force in times marked by war. We are eager and excited to follow the development of this fine and compassionate work.

About the project

The Wholly-Water is a site-specific, multidisciplinary performance by Prague-based Dafa Theater, created inside an abandoned swimming pool where physical theatre, objects, projections, and live music meet. Inspired by Ibsen’s Brand, the piece looks at how moral absolutism continues to shape modern systems of power.

The empty pool becomes both stage and metaphor, a space marked by the absence of water and the traces it left behind. Salt is the central material, holding the duality of what preserves and erodes, what remains and what disappears. Through movement, sound, and interaction with materials, the performers navigate questions of control, care, and resistance.

In dialogue with the ongoing genocide in Palestine/Gaza and the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices, the work draws parallels between Brand’s rigid idealism and contemporary state ideologies that justify violence in the name of morality. The Wholly-Water invites audiences into a space of collective witnessing, where body, sound, and matter resist indoctrination and open space for empathy, rethinking of truth, and ethical responsibility.

Dafa Theater 
Dafa Theatre is a multi-award-winning, socially engaged theater company based in the Czech Republic, working at the intersection of devised, physical, and object/puppet theater. Founded by Palestinian-Jordanian director and puppeteer Husam Abed and Hungarian stage designer and puppeteer Reka Deak, Dafa creates original performances that interrogate power and human responsibility through embodied storytelling.

Rooted in rigorous research, Dafa’s work opens spaces for dialogue, resistance, and finding different narratives, positioning theater as a public practice that challenges indoctrination and stereotypes. Dafa’s recent solo works, Smooth Life and War Maker, have been published and are used within academic contexts, including Political Science programs at Sciences Po (France).

The company produces original performances and short films and tours internationally across Europe, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, and the United States. Its artistic language blends devised theater, physical and object/puppet theater, music, and multimedia, drawing on both fictional and documentary material. Beyond performance, Dafa fosters cultural exchange through education initiatives, international collaborations, Ya Khayal Theatre Lab in Amman, Academy of actors for civic change/Artivism/Hungary, and the LIV’in Festival in Prague.