“The Handbag” and “The Definitive Way to Get Rid of Stains” | Egypt
Playwright - Marwa Farouk, Rasha Abdelmoneim
Translator - Dina Amin
Director -
Partner - Egyptian American Society
Synopsis - The Handbag is a sharply witty and poignant one-act play inspired by an Egyptian joke. It centers on a young woman wearing a niqab who must undergo a thorough security search of her handbag at a government facility. As the security officer probes the contents—ranging from keys to family members, musical instruments to social struggles—the handbag becomes a symbolic microcosm of the woman's complex life, reflecting societal pressures, personal hardships, and cultural contradictions. Through their exchanges, the play explores themes of identity, privacy, gender norms, religious conviction, and the everyday resilience of women navigating bureaucratic and social challenges. With humor and pathos, *The Handbag unravels the tension between tradition and modernity in contemporary Egyptian society.
Synopsis - What Happens when a Man Betrays a Woman is a poignant and metaphor-rich solo play exploring the emotional aftermath of betrayal. A woman in her mid-thirties navigates her pain and resilience through the symbolic act of cleansing stains—both literal and metaphorical. Juxtaposing the ritual of removing stubborn stains with memories of love, abandonment, and shattered trust, the play delves into themes of identity, vulnerability, and healing. Through vivid imagery, costume changes, and intimate monologues, the woman confronts the complexities of love and loss, ultimately reclaiming her self-worth and finding catharsis in letting go. This work masterfully blends symbolism, emotional depth, and dark humor to portray the transformative journey from betrayal to self-renewal.
Playwright - Marwa Farouk
Playwright - Marwa Farouk is a graduate in Music Education (B.Ed., 2000), She is a poet, writer, and theatre director, currently a music teacher in Oman's Ministry of Education. Her published works include two poetry collections, Masra` Thawb Aniq (The Demise of an Elegant Outfit-2012) and Al-Fuqar’a Yadkhulun al-Jannah (The Poor Go to Heavens-2019), and several plays: a Al-Akyas al-Mumtali’a (Full Plastic Bags) published by the General Authority for Cultural Palaces, Shibakna Satiyruh Harir (The Silk Curtains on Our Windows) published Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and has been translated into English, El-Bab El-Mewarib (The Ajar Window) published Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and `Arusa Khashab (A Wooden Doll) for which she was received the Sharjah Award for School Theatre Writing in 2024. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Sharjah Award for School Theatre Writing (2024), the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Arabic Writer's Award (2010), and the Egyptian Ministry of Culture's award for Kharbasha (Scratches). She has also won awards for children's theatre from the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports and has written and directed numerous children's theatre productions for Egyptian and Omani Ministries of Education and the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Playwright - Rasha Abdelmoneim
Translator - Dina Amin
Director -
Playwright - Rasha Abdelmoneim is a playwright and dramaturge with fifteen professionally produced works, including adaptations and original plays. Her notable successes include Walad we-Bint wa-Haggat (Boy, Girl, and Other Things) Youth Theatre, directed by Hany Afifi, Madha YaHduth `Indama Yakhun al-Rajul Imara'a (What Happens When a Man Betrays a Woman), published and translated by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2007, and Qawa`id al-`ishq al-Arb` (Rules of the Forty Loves), Al-Salam Theatre, a critically acclaimed production that ran for four years. Other productions include Hikayat El Harmlik, Atyaf el-Mawlawiya, Sayd el-Ahlam, and Suni'a fi-Misr. She's received numerous awards, including the Sharjah Girls Clubs Award for Women's Creativity (1999), Best Emerging Playwright from the National Egyptian Theatre Festival (2007), and a nomination for Best Dramaturge (2017). She has also received fellowships from VILP (USA, 2017) and the Beijing Institute of Cultural Industries (China, 2019), and conducts workshops on playwriting and creative writing. Since 2019, she has taught Theatre Management at Cairo University's Faculty of Arts.
Translator - Dina Amin MFA, PhD, is a stage director and Associate Professor of Theatre and Director of the Theatre Program at the American University in Cairo. She is a co-recipient of the Research Project Award of the Year from Times Higher Education in 2023. She is currently Director General of Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre 2014-2019 and again since 2022. Amin is the author of Alfred Farag and Egyptian Theater (2008), co-editor of Salaam: Anthology of Middle-Eastern-American Drama (2009), and From Orientalists to Arabists: The Shifts in Arabic Literary Studies, Journal of Arabic Literature (2010). Amin holds a PhD in Dramatic Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Eng & Comp Lit from AUC the American University in Cairo. She is the recipient of the West Coast Drama Clan Award (in honor of William Ball) for best director at CMU for her production of Ibsen’s A Lady from the Sea. She directs in both the U.S. and Egypt, in Arabic and English. Her latest production is Bank al-Qalaq (Bank of Anxiety) in 2023 and Qanun Antigon (Antigone’ Law, 2022) and Shababik `Attia (Attia’s Windows) in 2021at the American University in Cairo. Amongst her other directing credits are: Hikayat `Alina (Stories About Us, 2019), Al-Farafir (Flip Flop and His Master, 2017), Arden (an Egyptian adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2016), Matsanafneesh (Don’t Label Me, 2015) Segn al-Nisaa (Women’s Prison) by FatHeyyah al-`Assa (2013), Third by Wendy Wasserstein (2012), Beyond Therapy by Christorpher Durang (2008). Dina Amin is published in major academic journals and has translated a number of Arabic plays into English