Tips from the culture desk: Music! Theater! Food!

This is primarily a good week for music and theater, but there’s also a seductive food event in Cairo.

Maii and Zeid — Sunday and Tuesday

Maii Waleed and Zeid Hamdan are back together again to perform tracks fro their many electronic, alt-rock productions over the years, including 2013 albumMoga and last year’s EP EZAAL. Waleed, who works with bands and performers across Alexandria, Cairo and Beirut, first caught attention for her drumming in Alexandria rock band MASCARA in the early 2000s, and later as a solo artistand as a singer-songwriter with Samaka and Ritza, with whom she also contributes synth, vocals and occasional guitar. Producer Hamdan is also known for a wide body of work, from Soap Kills with Yasmine Hamdan to Zeid & The Wings and Maryam Saleh.

The duo perform on Sunday at the open-air Geinana Theater, with a follow-up performance at the Cairo Jazz Club on Tuesday, where Ahmed Saleh and Abdullah Miniawy open the evening with spoken word and ambient electronics.

8.30 pm, July 31 at Geinena Theater, Al-Azhar Park, Cairo, 10LE (LE5 ticket for Azhar Park sold separately). 10.30, August 2 at Cairo Jazz Club, 197 26th July Street, Agouza, Cairo, 30LE.

Selections from the National Theater Festival — all week

This week the state-run National Theater Festival can boast intriguing shows on multiple stages in Cairo. On Sunday and Monday, a troupe from Egypt’s southernmost town on the Red Sea, Shalateen, performs a short play introducing the south Red Sea region’s folklore at the Cairo Opera House. On Wednesday and Thursday at Falaki Theater, choreographer Sherine Hegazy shows her work Ya Sem — which tackles male perceptions of women and won the audience award at the 2015 2B Continued Festival. Later in the week, theater director Hani Afifi (I am Now Dead, About Lovers) shows his latest production, Zay al-Nas, which based on a Bertholt Brecht’s text The Exception and the Rule. Finally, one we’re particularly excited to see is Abeer Ali’s Al-Romady, which premiered in May in Cairo and is based on George Orwell’s 1984.

Multiple venues across the country from July 19 to August 8. Full program here.

Zig Zig in Cairo — starts Tuesday

After its premiere as part of the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival earlier this year, Laila Soliman’s recent play Zig Zig has an upcoming run in Cairo and Alexandria courtesy of Mahatat. Our reviewer found the work somewhat problematic, but because Soliman is a high-profile young playwright making research-based performances with interesting topics and respected actors, it could be worth going to make up your own mind (then read our review). Zig Zig takes as its starting point transcripts found in the British Foreign Office archives from an investigation into a mass rape by British occupying soldiers in a Giza village in 1919.

8 pm, August 2 to 5, Jesuits Cultural Center, Cairo, then at the Jesuits Cultural Center in Alexandria on August 10  and 11. Free, but admission by invitation only. See here to get an invitation.

Mada Masr’s #PlaylistWednesday — Wednesday

Each month we offer a local or regional musician or personality a platform to put together a custom playlist and show the world their musical tastes for an often danceable happy hour in downtown Cairo. After the success of her playlist night last year, multimedia artist and writer Kinda Hassan is back with eclectic regional tunes, including indie and alternative rock, psych, electro pop and electro funk.

8 pm - 2 am, August 3. Buy one (local spirit), get one free until 10 pm. After Eight, 6 Qasr al-Nil Street, downtown Cairo. See Facebook event here.

Slow Downtown — Friday

We always like to recommend Eish & Malh’s monthly slow food event in collaboration with Slow Food Cairo and Nawaya, which happens on the first Friday of every month.

To support local farmers and celebrate local, seasonal foods, Eish & Malh serves special dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner using fresh, carefully sourced ingredients. It also hosts a market of local producers, includingMinnie's Dried Fruits & Vegetables, Ma7ali Grocery & Deli, Habiba Organic Farm (HOF), Nawaya farmers, Reefy Honey, Fayoum Producers, Black Lotus Health & Beauty Products and Baladini. And between noon and 4 pm, there’s chilled live music.

It could also be a good time to pass by Kafein, just around the corner, to see the exhibition it’s hosting this month, by Amr Hamid.

August 5. Market hours: 11am - 6pm, menu hours: 8am - 10pm. 20 Adly Street, downtown Cairo. For reservations, call 01098744014. Facebook event here.