Festival of the Boat of Many Cultures: Coexistence, My Ass! | Stand Up

Is it possible to joke about the idea of peaceful coexistence when reality increasingly brutally exposes its limitations? Noam Shuster Eliassi — Israeli activist and comedian — in the original stand-up Coexistence, My Ass! confronts the idea of coexistence, inequality and the struggle for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine.

It's a very personal perspective. Shuster Eliassi grew up in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, or “Oasis of Peace” — a consciously created community in which Palestinians and Jews chose to live together. The idea of coexistence was therefore not an abstract political postulate for her, but an everyday experience and one of the foundations of her own biography. In Coexistence, My Ass! confronts the beliefs raised from there with the reality of the humanitarian conflict, using autobiography, political satire and uncompromising humor. The artist performs in Hebrew, Arabic and English, as well as elements of the Persian language. Multilingualism becomes part of the story of identity, belonging and functioning between communities that political narratives too often portray as irreconcilable.

The show was created at Harvard University and presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023. The performance will be followed by a conversation led by Monika Bobako and Agata Siwiak, followed by a conversation in a circle prepared by the New Community Foundation.

The event will be translated into Polish.

Thursday, October 15, 2026, 6:00 p.m.

Tickets available on the website lodzwielukultur.pl reduced: 50 zł normal: 70 zł

There are registrations for the conversation in the circle

Noam Shuster Eliassi is an Israeli activist and comedian who speaks Arabic, Hebrew and English, with elements of the Persian language. She grew up in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, a mixed Israeli-Palestinian community whose residents consciously chose to live together. Her satirical recordings gained great popularity in the Arab world. In 2019, she became the first Jewish female artist to perform at the Palestine Comedy Festival. Her original play Coexistence, My Ass! was made at Harvard and was recognized at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023.

Curator of the theater and dance program: Agata Siwiak

Conducting a conversation after stand-up: Monika Bobako and Agata Siwiak.

Conversation in the circle: The New Community Foundation.

For whom?

We invite people interested in theater and stand-up, but also in contemporary politics, Israeli-Palestinian relations and the question of the possibility of living together despite conflicts, inequalities and different experiences. Coexistence, My Ass! may be of particular interest to those who seek in art not simple declarations and ready answers, but perspectives that complicate our notions of identity, community and political engagement. It is not necessary to know in detail the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the artist's personal perspective allows us to enter into these issues through biography, language and humor.

Why is it worth it?

Coexistence, My Ass! resonates in a special way with the idea of the Łódź Festival of Many Cultures, because it poses an uncomfortable question about one of the concepts at the very center of thinking about multiculturalism: what exactly does “coexistence” mean? Is it enough for different communities to live side by side? What happens to the idea of dialogue when relations between them are marked by inequality, violence and political conflict?

Noam Shuster Eliassi does not answer these questions from the safe position of an outside observer. She grew up in a place built around the idea of peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Jews, and at the same time her work grows out of an awareness of the limitations of coexistence in this way.

For the Łódź Festival of Many Cultures, this is a particularly important perspective. Multiculturalism does not have to mean just celebrating diversity. It can — and sometimes should — also mean talking about conflicts, asymmetries, and conditions that must be met for a real encounter to be possible. Shuster Eliassi does it with a tool seemingly light: comedy. Humor allows her to challenge established narratives, expose absurdities and talk about things that are often difficult to talk about without immediately taking one of the opposing positions. Coexistence, My Ass! so it asks not only about whether we can live together, but also about what it takes for the word “together” to really mean something.