Displaced, Disabled and Dynamic

Featuring Hamzeh Al Hussien and Amy Golding discussing the experiences, triumphs and challenges touring their play Penguin (performed and co-created by, directed and co-created by Amy) across the UK and internationally.

Plus: Alia Alzougbi (CEO and Artistic Director, Shubbak) and Matt Burman (Cambridge Junction) share their perspectives on the intersections of displacement, disability and touring.

Followed by: online Q&A

Presented as part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts.

About Penguin

Full of humour and beauty, Hamzeh Al-Hussien’s extraordinary story takes you on a personal tour of the places he knows best: his village in the Syrian mountains, the Za’atari camp in Jordan, Gateshead and inside his mind, a place full of music, dancing, fantasies and marbles. Hamzeh invites the audience to be his childhood friends, to hold up the moon to light his way into his dreams, brushing the dust from his clothes…and taking the stage.

“From dodging bombs to dancing in nightclubs, Syrian theatre-maker Hamzeh Al Hussien enacts the story of his life”★★★★ The Guardian

Penguin is touring to Cambridge (7-8 October) and Norwich (9 October) as part of Platforma.

About the panel

Hamzeh Al Hussien was first introduced to performing during his six years in a refugee camp having been displaced from Syria, where he trained with a Spanish NGO in physical theatre. He performed in various productions there and facilitated drama and theatre projects with disabled children in the camp. In 2018 he joined the Arriving project, Curious Monkey’s ongoing creative project for people seeking sanctuary. He won “Best Newcomer” for Penguin in the North East Culture Awards 2023.

Amy Golding is an artist, activist, facilitator and consultant. As an artist she makes theatre and works across art forms to create joyful pop-up experiences. Whilst completing a Clore Cultural Leadership Fellowship she founded Curious Monkey – a Theatre Company of Sanctuary that specialised in creating socially relevant productions, for which it became a significant company in the north east and across the UK. Amy was Artistic Director & Joint CEO there for 12 years. She has now stepped into a new phase of her career as a freelance multidisciplinary artist.

Alia Alzougbi is a Syrian-Lebanese disabled cultural strategist, artist and facilitator working at the intersection of art and social and environmental justice. She is CEO and Artistic Director of Shubbak (meaning ‘window’ in Arabic) which supports and celebrates the diversity of Arab and South West Asian & North African (SWANA) artists’ creativity and innovation through its professional, participatory and engagement programmes, national touring and biennial multi-artform festival. Among Shubbak’s initiatives has been Sync Arabi, a disabled leadership intensive residential for disabled cultural workers from the SWANA region in partnership with Sync Leadership and Art 2 Heart Palestine funded by British Council.

Matt Burman has been Artistic Director and Chief Executive at Cambridge Junction since 2018. He previously worked as an Independent Producer and Programmer for clients including London International Festival of Theatre and Leeds City Council. Prior to that, he held positions including Artistic Director at Yorkshire Festival, Head of Programme at Warwick Arts Centre and Executive Producer at Norfolk & Norwich Festival. Among the initiatives at Cambridge Junction is Total Arts, a fortnightly participation group for disabled young people aged 13-25.