The latest version of The Nights of El Warsha, Haeeshek... is a music hall production born of the accounts of the 18 days that, in 2011, led to the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and to the events that continue to shake Egypt today. Working from a recent creation, Zawaya: Testimonies from the Revolution, young writer Shady Atef gathered various accounts of those pivotal days and turned them into five monologues he gave to so many different characters: a thug bought and paid for by the authorities, an officer of the army, the mother of a young man killed in Tahrir Square, a football supporter, and a human rights activist. For director Hassan El Gertly, this is the opportunity to think about those testimonies: “the idealism of those 18 days remains a reference, but things are more ambiguous; this isn't a celebration (...), you get different points of view, and the stories are those we tend not to hear, not to tell.” But it is also an opportunity to hear a large repertoire of songs performed by the actors, storytellers, singers, and musicians of the El Warsha company. Moral quatrains of the ancient Banu Hilal saga, music hall from Cairo, revolutionary songs from Suez, workers' songs from Nubia, protest songs written by Sheikh Imam and Ahmed Fouad Negm, the joke songs of Mahmoud Choukoukou, etc. Haeeshek... is a uniquely Egyptian way of answering rage and injustice with sarcasm, of tending to one's pain and loss by celebrating the coming day.
Distribution
Artistic direction Hassan El Geretly
With
Ahmed Shoukry, Arfa Abdel Rassoul, Dalia El Guindy, Donia Maher, Essam El Makhsour, Gamal Messed, Hassan Aboelrouss, Hassan El Geretly, Lana Mushtaq, Maged Soleiman, Mo'men Zaki, Mohamed (Mido) Ismail, Rabie Zein, Raafat Farahat, Seif El Aswany, Yasser El Maghraby, Youssef Salama, Zakareyya (Zizo) Ta
Production
Production El Warsha
With the support of Hakaya, Union européenne, TAMASI Performing Art Network, SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
With the help of Ministère de la Culture de la République Arabe d'Égypte
Thanks to l'Institut français d'Égypte au Caire