The milestone was reached at the National Theatre in Cairo on Thursday 13 August, where the current production has been running since its return to the stage in mid-2025.
According to Egypt’s Ministry of Culture, the production has generated more than EGP 6 million in ticket revenues, since the play's premiere.
The latest run represents El-Fakharany’s return to one of his most prominent theatrical roles. He first performed King Lear in Egypt in 2001, in a production directed by Ahmed Abdel Halim. That original staging also featured actors including Sawsan Badr, Salwa Mohamed Ali, Rania Farid Shawky and Ahmed Fouad Selim, alongside the late Farouk El-Fishawy and Ashraf Abdel Ghafour.
A second version was staged in 2019, while the current production - directed by Shady Sorour - began its latest run in July 2025. The production had already reached its 100th performance on 4 January 2026.
Speaking ahead of the 2025 revival, El-Fakharany reflected on the physical demands of playing Shakespeare’s ageing monarch when he first assumed the role in 2001.
At the time, he said, he had to physically bend himself to embody an elderly Lear, leaving him with severe back pain after performances. Returning to the role at the age of 80, however, he said he no longer needed to physically create the character’s age.
In addition to King Lear, El-Fakharany has appeared in numerous stage productions, many of them originally produced in the 1960s and throughout the 1990s. In 2015, he starred in Mohsen Helmy’s adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights.
Alongside his theatre work, El-Fakharany has appeared in more than 50 films and around 70 television series to date.
The current cast of Kind Lear alongside El-Fakharany includes Tarek El-Desouky, Hassan Youssef, Mohamed El-Ezayzi, Eman Ragaa, Amal Abdallah, Ahmed El-Nasser, Islam Abbas, Diaa Shafik and Hamdy Attia.
The play, produced by the National Theatre troupe, is currently staged from Thursday to Sunday at 9pm. Tickets are sold at the theatre box office from 4pm, priced at EGP 60, 80 and 110.
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