The 30th edition of the CIFET will run between 1-8 September.
The three plays were chosen from 90 submissions from Egyptian theatre makers.
Two of the plays will participate in the main competition, including The Man Who Has Eaten Paper, a play based on The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. The play's adaptation and scenery are prepared by Mohamed El-Hadary.
The second play is Icarus, directed by Ahmed Ezzat El-Alfi.
The committee also chose a play, Frida, to be performed outside the competition. Directed and choreographed by Sally Ahmed, the play is presented by the Modern Theatre Dance Company.
This year’s festival is presided over by Sameh Mahran, with Mohamed Elshafei as its general coordinator.
Over the past two editions, the festival's president has been Gamal Yakout, while El-Shafei and Saeed Kabeel served as artistic directors.
The CIFET was launched in 1988 by the former Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny to put Egypt on the international theatrical map. Since its second edition, the CIFET was presided over by the late scholar-writer and former President of the Academy of Arts Fawzy Fahmy, who retained this post until 2010.
The festival was interrupted for five years after the January 2011 Revolution and came back in 2016 with Sameh Mahran as its president. It was renamed the Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre (CIFCET), limited its programme and dropped its competitive character.
The name reverted to the CIFET in its 27th edition (2020), when Alaa Abdel-Aziz took over and the competition was reinstated.
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