The artists and scholars of Arab theatre today are an international, multilingual, and multigenerational group. Doomed by Hope provides an unprecedented bilingual platform for the voices of this diverse cultural and intellectual field.

The project is inspired by the late dramatist Saadallah Wannous who in 1996 delivered the international message 'Thirst for Dialogue' for World Theatre Day, created by the International Theatre Institute founded by UNESCO. In this message, Wannous mourned the traumatic effects of globalization on theatre and culture but insisted on theatre’s necessity and on the promise of the future in saying, 'We are doomed by hope.'

He wrote
'I firmly believe that the theater, despite all the technological revolutions, will remain the ideal place where man can reflect both upon on his historical and existential condition.

…the globalization that is taking shape at the end of this century is almost the very opposite of the utopia dreamt of by philosophers and which has nourished our spirit through the ages…it seems to be mercilessly destroying all forms of solidarity in societies, until at last there will remain only isolated individuals, worn down by solitude and depression.

Indeed, theater is more than art; it is a complex phenomenon of civilization itself.

If we were to let it vanish, the world would become a lonelier, uglier, and poorer place."

Are these questions still relevant? To what extent are we conscious of these dilemmas?

Is the dynamic between globalization, culture, and theatre the same throughout the world?

Have we found any solutions?

How might we imagine a world without theatre?'