Macbeth: An Adaptation

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are in a nightmarish state which depicts the eternal punishment for their crimes. The story begins with a witch talks about heinous bloodshed while Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are dead in body bags , the witch opens the body bags and lady Macbeth rises frantically washes her hand in the air while the witch chops off Macbeth heads and dances with the headless body bringing both back to their memories of their crimes. Three witches are three men in military uniform singing and prophesying that Macbeth will be thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. Macbeth writes the news to Lady Macbeth and telling her that King of Scotland Duncan is coming to visit them, Lady Macbeth tempts Macbeth to kill the king while she kills the guards. The headless body reappears in waltzing with the witch while Lady Macbeth dances with Macbeth and puts on the crown but he feels the guilt of his crime and sees three witches laughing. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are in bed lamenting about their crimes and both go to their doom fate looking at their lost child in a cubed glass while witches sing.

Writing in the Dark

A group of friends who are journalists are plan a holiday to the north of the country, but each one starts to debate whether it’s good to travel, that eventually leads to a vote and signifies the lack of a common goal among these friends. Nima is a photo journalist who has been arrested for documenting a protest, and being questioned by an interrogator.

In another timeline, Nima and his journalist friends are again on holiday in Germany, discussing the possible call for asylum, but only one decides to become a refugee. It appears that Nima is no longer in the interrogation room suggesting he is dead, while his friends seated separately on chairs watch the blindfolded being investigated by a young interrogator.

Drowning in Cairo

Drowning in Cairo follows the lives of three Egyptian gay men from different walks of life, whose fate forces them together time and again over a 20 year period. The play is set between 1997 and 2017 as Moody, Khalid and Taha age from 13 to 33 and the political system and queer life transform around them. In eleven episodic scenes, Drowning in Cairo chronicles the contemporary history of the queer community’s relationship to the law and public space in Egypt.

Broken Window

Some time before the revolution of 2011, the playwright had already envisioned the kind of revolt that was about to explode, and -with it- the necessity for an artistic expression that would bridge the gap between the unspoken oppression and the manipulated platforms of public opinion. In that context, she created “Made in Egypt”, a story about an Egyptian Bo-Azizy, a man who -instead of setting his body on fire like in Tunisia- kills his own family with a poisonous meal. Not far from reality, the story had many connections with several incidents of Egyptian fathers killing their own children out of mercy, and sometimes killing themselves afterwards. The facts of poverty and de-humanisation were beyond imagination.
Here the father eventually fails inches crime. The poison had no effect. Like many products carrying the mark of “made in Egypt”, the poison was a failure. Although a happy failure, the highly dramatic event in the text is a double criticism towards oppression and poverty on one hand, and towards the massive failure of Egyptian industry and economy, a failure of Egyptian nationalism. Staged in 2019 under a new title: “A Broken Window”, the play shows a middle class family that is stuck between poverty, ignorance, superstition, corruption and the continuous sexual harassment against women.

Fear

Set in a room that is almost made of waste, the conflict between the corrupt upper social class and the almost dehumanised characters of the under-privileged community takes place. The rich man -in his 40’s- seeks temporary refuge in the living space of the deprived man in his 30’s. The playwright shapes that encounter with a seemingly thriller style. The deprived man is almost insane, uttering aggressive words of accusation to the rich and the privileged. He seems to have escaped the police after having killed a police officer. With no shame, he admits to have been a drug dealer, but he does not admit of doing wrong by killing the police officer. He perceives it as an act of justice, because the police officer killed a poor soldier before his eyes. A round woman, Amira, joins the encounter. She is a friend of the lunatic man. Then a man in his 50’s -equally deprived and oppressed- joins as well claiming that the place is his. The playwright examines the vicious circle of poverty, violence and corruption, highlighting how big parts of the population were impoverished, destined to drug dealing and deprived from the basic rights of citizenship. At the end of the play, the rich business man steps out of the place knowing that the police forces are outside and assuming that he will be protected by them. Suddenly gun shots are heard, and the play ends without knowing who shot who. The question remains whether it was the young woman who has already threatened the rich man, or if it was the old poor man who claimed ownership of the gun, or if it was the police who shot the wrong guy mistaking him for the lunatic man who killed the police officer or may be it was justice done by mistake..