Tips from the culture desk: A breezy week for Cairenes and Alexandrians

After last week's multitude of events, this is a quieter week during which you can go visit the Shady Elnoshokaty solo exhibition we recommended last week, attend a solid electronic music concert at Cairo's Al-Azhar Park, see an atmospheric musical play in Islamic Cairo, and/or gear up for an energetic festival that will fill Alexandria (and apparently touch Cairo) with cultural events.

Hussein Sherbini + Abdallah Miniawy and Ahmed Saleh — Saturday

With lyrics taking a firm stance against the Western obsession with mahragan music (sometimes referred to in the non-Egyptian press as "electro-shaabi"), Hussein Sherbini's sophomore album Electro Shaabi was earlier this year to both criticism and praise. The music is mid-tempo electronic with heavy basslines and occasional industrial sounds — Sherbini’s signature sound can be found in various tracks that draw connections to his other production project, Wetrobots + Bosaina, and his previous album, Fairchile. Completing the evening’s solid line-up are singer/songwriter Abdallah Miniawy, with his Sufi-influenced repertoire, and Ahmed Saleh from Telepoetic (see video of them collaborating above). 

8 -11 pm on October 10, Genaina Theater, Al Azhar Park, Salah Salem Road, Cairo. Tickets LE50. See the Facebook event here, and buy tickets here.

Backstreet Festival — starts Friday

Alexandria’s Backstreet Festival — not widely known outside the city but embraced by many arts-loving Alexandrians — returns for its third edition. It is certain to render the Mediterranean city a little more exciting for a week, and this year there will even be a few events in Cairo. Its mission is to enliven Alexandria’s public spaces and theaters with an array of performances and visual interventions, in addition to an artist's training program, films and talks. It’s organized by-Alexandria based I-ACT (International Association for Creation and Training), which is directed by the very busy Mahmoud Abodoma, who’s also founder of Teatro in both Alexandria and Cairo and head of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s programs unit.

The seven-day festival will apparently hosts 15 theater, circus, music and dance performances from Egypt, Kenya, Germany, Austria, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Japan and Finland. True to the last-minute form of previous editions, the program details are yet to be announced but should be soon on their Facebook event page.

The Backstreet Festival runs from Friday 16 October to Thursday 22 October, with several daily events in Alexandria and some in Cairo.

About Lovers at Amir Taz Palace — starts next Saturday

Photo by Amir al-Amir, courtesy of Hani Afifi.

Based on theThe Ring of the Dove by Andalusian thinker Ibn Hazm and directed by Hani Afifi, Aan al-Aashaq (About Lovers) is this week's theater tip.

Afifi has several works under his belt, the most notable being the 2005 production I am Now Dead, which was the winner of the French Institute’s Jeunes Créateurs (Young Creators) annual theatre festival that year. It later had runs at Rawabet and Falaki Theater, and was revived nine years later at the French Institute, receiving high praise all round.

About Lovers was performed already in 2013 and 2014 at the historic, government-run Amir Taz Palace, which dates back to the Mamluk dynasty in the 14th century, bringing extra atmosphere to the tale. The actors will be joined by the Arabic Oud House to present both improvisations and Om Kalthum songs within the performance, which also features dance. While we haven’t seen the show ourselves yet, from our knowledge of Afifi’s previous works, the choice of source text and the setting, we reckon it’s well worth attending.

About Lovers runs from 17 to 21 October at 8pm at the Amir Taz Palace, 27 Al-Soufeya Street, Old Cairo. Entrance free, first come, first served.