The reviews are in for The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media), BÉZNĂ Theatre’s documentary piece at New Diorama Theatre, which examines how UK news outlets reported the twelve months from 7 October 2023. Written and directed by Sînziana Cojocărescu, with contributions from Hannah Khalil, Ahmed Masoud and an anonymous writer, it is performed by Maryam Abu Khaled, Luca Kamleh Chapman, Sara Masry and Sofia. The notices divide sharply. London Pub Theatres, Theatre and Tonic and A Young(ish) Perspective find it a vital, unsettling piece of theatre, while The Guardian, North West End and Liam O’Dell admire its ambition but feel the drama gets lost beneath its data, scene changes and projected captions.
The verdict: ten reviews in so far. Eight carry a rating: three four-star notices, one three-star, one two-and-a-half and three two-star, an average of 2.9 out of 5. British Theatre Guide and London Listings publish no score. Nobody doubts the production’s seriousness or its cast; the split is over whether the sheer volume of facts and the constant switches of form sharpen its argument or smother the drama.
What are critics saying about The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media)?
London Pub Theatres
"A sobering and moving experience"
Reviewer: Andy Curtis
"The First Year… is not always an easy watch and nor should it be. It is an example of the vital role theatre can play, sharing stories not shared elsewhere or, in this case, usually told mainly through one perspective. It is therefore a sobering and moving experience."
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Greta
"Despite a press night penalised by tech glitches, the multidisciplinary team behind the show has done ambitious, meticulous work brimming with moral integrity. The strongest sections are the ones that veer most towards journalism; the dramatisation of events is sometimes more successful, and other times not as strong. Nonetheless, I do believe theatre investigating abjection, as this show does, has a transformative power, as it encourages audiences to complicate dominant narratives about abject subjects and to produce alternative ones. That’s why The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media) is an essential watch."
A Young(ish) Perspective
"A relentless dissection of the passive violence of mass media"
"The play ends on a note that perfectly encapsulates the tone of the play—cold, relentless, exhausting. True, really, to how the past few years have landed. The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media) snaps at your attention, during a time when more and more distraction is designed to lure us away."
Everything Theatre
Reviewer: Alex Careswell
"To stage a play tackling one of the worst conflicts in modern history, amid deepening political division, is a bold choice. BÉZNĂ Theatre meets that challenge with sincerity and vision. The writing is intense, inviting audiences to confront human tragedy while interrogating the media’s role in shaping public perception. Excellent set and video designs from Akil and Dan Light create a world that envelops the viewer in the devastation. Yet, by attempting to compress so many concepts into 90 minutes, the production sacrifices narrative clarity, impact, and consistency. This is a good play that could become excellent with further development."
The Reviews Hub
Reviewer: Maryam Philpott
"Performed by Maryam Abu Khaled, Luca Kamleh Chapman, Sara Masry and Sofia, this show is still working itself out, still polishing its edges. More a dramatised essay than a cogent theatrical experience, this remains largely a journalistic rather than a dramatic experience."
The Guardian
"bold but uneven focus on Palestinian voices"
Reviewer: Arifa Akbar
"So its power is drowned out, yet still this is a production that should be admired for its ambition to say something profound in a fresh and radical way. It feels like a show still finding its centre, playing out prematurely. It is one I would like to see, in due course, containing just as much dimension and depth but with greater clarity and rigour alongside it."
North West End
Reviewer: Klervi Gavet
"The First Year clearly wants us to feel. Even its clap-less ending makes that clear. But why choose theatre for this when other media can create an emotional response more efficiently? If lasting effect, or a call to action, was the goal, I would have welcomed a greater trust in the particular transformative power of theatre."
Liam O’Dell
Reviewer: Liam O’Dell
"The four performances are powerful and passionate. Kamleh Chapman performs with conviction, Abu Khaled with sensitivity, and Sofia and Sara Masry with a kind of scorn at the extent of the media’s ignorance (as evidenced in a ‘game’ with the audience which explores how warmth, competency and context can bring about different reactions from a consumer). They don’t bow at the end, and the names of dead Palestinians scroll across the auditorium once they’ve left the stage – evoking a kind of patient consideration of the genocide and its mass slaughter which I felt was absent from the piece itself."
British Theatre Guide
Reviewer: Keith Mckenna
"At the heart of a performance by the four confident actors, Kamleh Chapman, Abu Khaled, Sara Masry and Sofia, who each take multiple parts, are the troubling accounts of Palestinian suffering that seem to be so absent from the tokenistic media reports of a body count from a source the media insists on labelling the “Hamas-run Health Ministry”."
London Listings
"An angry response to The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide)"
Reviewer: Daniel Nelson
"Each scene, each report is part of an appalling, shocking panorama, a few of which stand out for sheer impact, such as the acting out of the massacre that accompanied an Israeli raid to rescue hostages. The show says the Palestine side of the story was not told, and proceeds to tell it in graphic detail."
Production photographs by Alex Brenner.
For more of this week’s verdicts, read our roundups of a small and quiet light at the Orange Tree and The Standard of Living at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media) runs at New Diorama Theatre until 10 October 2026.
