It is certainly true that Egyptian theatre faces threats from every quarter: perennial lack of funds and resources for youth, independent, and non-profit theatre (also known as “free theatre”); a dearth of performance spaces and theatres relative to the country’s population; a state theatre organisation bloated with civil servants; limited support for theatre outside of Cairo; the increasing allocation of Gulf Arab funds for Egyptian theatre to shows performed exclusively in Gulf countries; and endless taboos to do with the Big Three – sex, religion, and politics – coupled with a still rising tide of social conservatism that makes it harder for women and minorities to access art.

Add to this the global phenomenon of social media and audiovisual content that tempts all of us and especially younger generations, away from traditional art forms such as theatre and even reading, and it can be understood why local theatre makers despair. But while Egyptian theatre may be ailing, and while this year may not have been the most productive, it is significant that even in lean years, the sheer scale of theatrical talent, enthusiasm, human resources and, above all, history make Egyptian theatre stronger than we doomsayers think. Egyptian theatre will survive.

That said, one of the greatest threats to Egyptian theatre in September-October 2024 was the possible closure of the hugely popular and geographically central government-owned Floating Theatre in Manial, an institution that has been running since the 1950s, reportedly as part of the sale Nile-front properties to Gulf investors.

At their inception, the original idea behind the Floating Theatre and its sister theatre, the now-defunct Giza Cultural Palace, was to have both audiences and performances on a barge that floated up and down the Nile for the duration of the performance, which actually occurred, according to eyewitness accounts, early on in their history. However, this soon ended, whether for technical or security reason I have been unable to ascertain; still, though, both the Main Stage and the smaller Fatima Rushdy stage are performance spaces that float on the Nile and could in theory be unmoored.

One good thing about the threat of closure of the Floating Theatre is that an outcry rose to save the theatre, and all plays scheduled to go on but delayed for budget reasons were rushed through and performances immediately started, even with no budget, to keep the lights on and the theatre functioning. (The Floating Theater was demolished on 23 December, 2024). On the main stage was Ayman Mustafa’s Electra’s Mirrors, while on the Fatima Rushdy stage was Said Soliman’s Semsemeya– The Touring Project (a project to tour the governorates of Egypt).

Speaking of the governorates of Egypt, another piece of unwelcome news is that all government theatres in the seaside town of Damietta are reported to have closed down, in addition to some theatres in the Nile Delta. No information is yet available about Upper Egypt, and the reasons remain unknown.

An important question I always like to ask in this context is who, and what organisations, are invested in sponsoring, supporting, granting space to, or otherwise sustaining youth, nonprofit, amateur and independent theatre – that is, low- or no-budget theatre working with the bare minimum of resources.

As well as one-time workshops, this can be summarised in a number of entities: the National Festival for Theatre, not out of love for the independent movement but because their regulations stipulate that there has to be independent theatre in their lineup; Studio Emadeddin’s D-CAF Festival, short for the Downtown Cairo Arts Festival, which sponsors a number of theatre projects performed at venues around Downtown Cairo; the Jesuit Cultural Centre, which has a performance space off Ramses Street in Cairo; the Academy of Arts’ Nehad Selaiha Theatre; and the mega-sponsor Ashraf Abdel-Baqi with his Succès project.

The Nehad Selaiha Theatre, while it does not offer funding, has quickly become an important venue for free theatre. The theatre hosts all the internal events for the Theatre Department of the Academy of Arts, but you can also perform there if you are not affiliated with the academy.

Usually, the limited number of theatres at the academy means that they are perennially overcrowded; we are a country very, very rich in human resources in the form of young people, many of whom are creatives, and even with the festivals on offer, they simply cannot absorb all the energy the students have.

The addition of this theatre also means that Academy of Arts students from other institutes, not only the Theatre Institute, have a chance to perform, whereas before there was no space. More importantly, the team at the Nehad Selaiha Theatre does excellent publicity and liaisons with the press and therefore offers performances a chance to be seen.

The cancellation of the Free Theatre Festival (it was not held this year) means that the free theatre – our term for youth, independent, amateur, and nonprofit theatres – is more or less orphaned. Actor and producer Ashraf Abdel-Baqi is today performing the role that former director of the Hanager Theatre Huda Wasfi used to play throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, namely offering a venue and some sponsorship to independent and amateur theatres not affiliated with any government bodies.

Abdel-Baqi started out with Masrah Masr (2014-2019), a now-defunct project to produce and record commercial comedies, which nevertheless founded a wonderful workshop that offered serious actor training for young theatre makers. Wanting to do something real, he put on Gareema fil-Maadi (an adaptation of the British box-office smash The Play That Goes Wrong) in parallel from 2017-2022 at the downtown Naguib Al-Rihani Theatre, which he had renovated from top to bottom, and it also showed in Saudi Arabia.

He produced a number of short plays, under one hour, seen only very sparsely in Egypt and otherwise performed only in Saudi Arabia. However, there was a massive side benefit to the workshops for young people, and not only that the graduates of this programme worked as rising stars in television and cinema and in Abdel-Baqi’s Succès project. What happened was that Abdel-Baqi experienced firsthand the struggles and sufferings of this generation seeking a chance for exposure.

This led him to found the aforementioned Succès, which gives youth, amateur, nonprofit and independent theatre companies a chance to perform on his Rihani Theatre in Emadeddin Street, and publicises them through Ticketsmarche and other avenues, resulting in excellent exposure and audience turnout, in addition to 25 per cent of the box-office going to the company.

A one-time workshop which is nevertheless important is a months-long workshop (so far) run by producer Ahmed Bouhi. Since the decline of the Hanager Theatre, workshops building a multifaceted actor (music, movement, acting) are few. The Jesuit Centre does play a minor role, and Studio Emadeddin as well. Such enterprises were limited to a handful of actors over a few days.

However, Bouhi has been (and still is) holding a large-scale workshop for several months now on acting, music and circus arts, comprising 120 performers, with no upper age limit, resulting in a combination of younger and veteran actors, in an atmosphere that hasn’t existed for a long time in Egyptian theatre.

Another phenomenon worth mentioning is the Riyadh Season (Mousem Al-Riyadh). This is relatively unknown in Egypt because Saudi Arabian producers purchase exclusive rights to Egyptian-made theatre performances, including all broadcast and even recording or documentation rights. This leads the Egyptian public to miss out on some important shows: for instance, there are no recordings of Habibaty Man Takoon, a biographical show about Abdel-Halim Hafez directed by the legendary Khairy Bishara and performed in Saudi in 2022.

This year, there were a number of performances starring A-listers, including Malak and the Hero (Malak wal-Shater) starring Ahmed Ezz and Yousra, Sun and Moon (Shams wa Qamar) starring Minna Shalaby, and more, but all performed in Saudi Arabia with no access for Egyptian audiences – a sad reminder that money talks.

Below is a roundup of the festivals, important performances, artistic training projects, and other achievements of 2024.

FESTIVALS: (Government-funded unless otherwise specified)

Acting Professions Union Festival

National Festival for Theatre.

CIFET (Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre).

International Forum for University Theatre, an underrated important festival with many significant shows.

Performing Arts Festival, held by the Academy of Arts and funded by the Folk Art Institute.

The 31st Theatre Clubs Festival, run by the Cultural Palaces Authority, an arm of the Mass Culture Organisation, which presented an astonishing total of 322 plays this year in cultural palaces around the country.

D-CAF (Downtown Cairo Arts Festival) Sponsored by Studio Emadeddin.

Last but not least, the Isis International Festival for Women’s Theatre. The brainchild of three female theatre practitioners, Rasha Abdel-Moneim, Abeer Ali and Abeer Lotfy, it aims to promote feminist and women’s theatre, and funds projects for the development of feminist theatre and works by marginalised communities, especially women. This year’s honorary head (every year has one) was A-lister Ilham Shaheen. The second and third cycles were held in tandem this year because last year issues prevented the second festival from taking place. This festival is funded by the Supreme Council for Festivals, a state organisation affiliated with the Ministry of Culture.

PLAYS: This year has seen a number of performances that were widely hailed by audiences and acclaimed by critics as extremely important, and will probably be performed again in 2025, so keep an eye open!

Three Seats on the Last Train. Awarded Best Performance at the Isis Festival, Best Dances by Raheel Emad, and Best Rising Author and Director, Michael Magdy.

Opera Attaba. At the Avant-Garde Theatre, reviewed here.

I’m In Love (Ana Esheqt). Biographical performance about the life and times of early 20th-century musical icon Sayed Darwish bringing together documentary, acting and live music, performed during D-CAF at Rawabet Theatre and funded by Audios Archive, the Jesuit Cultural Centre, and the Alexandrian Studies Centre.

My Bedroom (Oodet Noomi). Extremely significant site-specific theatre performance held in an apartment and directed by Mahmoud Sayed. It deals with five separate but intersecting stories all taking place in bedrooms, to do with themes of death, loneliness, love, and other human experiences. This type of theatre is still very limited worldwide.

Kasper. Awarded Best Author at the National Festival for Theatre.

My Own Lady (Sayidaty Ana). Awarded Best Performance and Best Director at the National Festival for Theatre.

The Rituals of Signs and Changes. The Port-Said Theatre Club’s rendition of Saadallah Wannus’ classic was awarded Best Performance at the Theatre Clubs Festival.

Moulin Rouge (Al-Tahouna Al-Hamra). A truly amazing performance put on by the Rod Al-Farag Cultural Palace which won Best Music at the National Festival for Theatre. On a shoe string budget, they recreated the tableaux of the movie with their own Egyptian music and lyrics live on stage.

The Last Supper. Earned Iyad Amin, its well-known rising director, Best Director and Best Show at the Acting Professions Union Festival.

Turn Right, Then First Left. Earned Mahmoud Gamal Al-Hiddini Best Author at the Acting Professions Union Festival.

Macbeth, the Factory. Breakout adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic adapted and directed by Mahmoud Husseini, performed by CU’s Faculty of Dentistry and awarded Best Scenography at the 2024 CIFET.

Silence. From Kuwait, the only non-Egyptian show on this list, performed in Cairo during CIFET and awarded Best Script, starring Jordanian superstar Hala Omran, best known for Yousry Nasrallah’s Bab Al-Shams.

Endgame. A noteworthy rendition of Beckett’s classic, winning Best Director at the University Theatre Festival for Youssef Mustafa.

Where No One Can See Me. Best Show at the University Theatre Festival. Many are saying it is one of the most prominent shows to come out of Egypt this year.

In a side note, the University Theatre Festival inaugurated the Samia Habib Award for Best Theatre Review this year, which went to Karim Khaled for his review of Earthquake.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 December, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly