The Minister of Culture inaugurated the 30th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater

Hologram technology at the opening of “CIFET”; the technology is being employed for the first time in festivals’ history

Cairo, September 1^st, 2023

Dr. Neveen Al-Kilany, Minister of Culture, has inaugurated The 30th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater, headed by Dr. Sameh Mahran.  Her excellency attended the festival’s opening ceremony this evening, Friday, at Cairo Opera House, in the presence of Egyptian and Arab theater stars and celebrities, as well as a number of Ministry of Culture leaders

CIFET will run until September 8th, with 19 performances from Arab and foreign countries competing in addition to Egypt. The festival honors a number of renowned Egyptian and international theater figures

The ceremony began with the Arab Republic of Egypt’s national anthem, and was followed by a light show that formed and embodied the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater’s logo, which is a lotus flower with a circle inside that represents the sun’s rays and contains the natural primary colors of red, yellow, and blue

The ceremony, directed by Ahmed El-Bohy, a member of the festival’s supreme committee, began with Dr. Medhat El-Adl’s words, Welcome to all of you at the opening of Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater, one of the world most renowned and oldest theater festivals. Today marks the beginning of the festival’s 30th edition

“Experimentation is the secret behind humanity’s development,” Al-Adl added. Newton discovered the law of gravitation through experimentation, and Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity through experimentation. Man has made it to the moon through experimentation. Art is synonymous with adventure and daring. The ability to astonish is defined as art. Let alone experimental art, where unbridled imagination yields the most stunning, sweetest, and perfect outcomes

“This festival holds a special place in my heart because my dear, elder brother, superstar Sami al-Adl was the first Arab, Egyptian artist to win the award for best actor in the festival,” Al-Adl continued. The second and last is Mohamed Fahim, who plays the title role in Charlie, one of my most important works about the life of cinema legend Charlie Chaplin, which premieres tonight. He added “The Egyptian theater has a long story written by a group of great artists, and the real delight of tonight is the guests

Dr. Sameh Mahran, President of the 30th edition of CIFET, then took the stage and gave his speech, “theater progress was the most visible expression of passing from one social organization to another, and from cognitive content to a different one.” As a result, we see the past-biased theater as it indicates; whoever does not leave his or her past behind has no past

“There is no change in society without experimentation”, Mahran continued, adding that “those who do not experiment spin and gasp inside a closed circle, suffocating in isolation and silence. It is true that every experimental act, whether in art or science, is performed by going backwards in time, not to emulate or reproduce it, but to leap forward better, stronger, and more confidently,” he said.

“The experimental theater does not address the mass audience united cause of a certain ideology or some major narrative, but rather it addresses the individual spectator who is culturally prepared for independent evaluation, as it is not possible in the experimental theater to issue what is known as (crowd Psychology) that represents a single, general way of feeling and believing,” Mahran added

“The dismantling and demolishing of the foregoing remains always one of the experimenting artist’s volition in order to completely lose direction, which obliges him/her to stimulate all his/her energies towards discovering what has not been revealed,” he concluded. There is a deep internal component in every art system, that is, the spirit of experimentation, which has its own parity code

Following that, Minister of Culture Dr. Neveen Al-Kilany announced the 30th CIFET official opening, saying, “ladies and gentlemen, guests of Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater, It’s a pleasure to have you here tonight, and welcome to all of the festival troupes

following the minister’s speech, Dr. Sameh Mahran announced The festival’ jury committee for 2023, chaired by theater director, Essam El-Sayed, along with the membership of Ahmed Kamal (Egypt), Jihad Saad (Syria), Ezz El-Din Bonet (Morocco), Giles Foreman (England), Asiimwe Deborah (Uganda), and Raluca Gabriela (Romania)