The Egyptian theatrical performance “For Ladies Only... Until 9 PM” places a group of women in an exceptional situation that begins with the metro car stopping at 8:55, inside the closed space, and 9 women, a man and two children find themselves forced to wait together, and the daily journey turns into a space where stories and confessions intersect, revealing aspects of the characters’ lives that were not supposed to come out in the open.
As the waiting continues, the nature of the relationship between the women inside the car changes, as each one arrives at the place carrying her own experience, but the situation forces them to get closer to each other and listen to what the others are going through, and from here the show begins to present the idea of support between women as a relationship formed from human need, and not from just a declared position or slogan.
The show belongs to the space of magical realism, as its events start from the realism of the metro car with all its daily details, before gradually opening up to the characters’ inner worlds. “Manal,” who suffers from daydreams, appears in a show that reveals her relationship with her father and the stages of her care for him, before the scene expands to evoke the caring relationships that connect the various characters. As for “Hanan,” the metro saleswoman, she turns her passion for the stories of the women who cross the car into another show in which she imagines their fates outside the world. The metro, where they return to their lives, happier and more reassured, and the dream turns into a space that gives the characters another life beyond their crisis reality.
The performance, which was presented during the activities of the “Isis International Women’s Theater Festival” in Cairo, reveals that solidarity does not necessarily mean that women are similar or agree on everything. On the contrary, differences appear between the characters, and with them come feelings of anxiety, fear, and tension. However, this shared space allows them to discover that individual experiences can resonate with others.
The place takes on special importance in building the idea of the play, as the metro car, which was originally designed for transit, turns into a place that no one can leave, and when it stops, daily life stops temporarily, and the characters are forced to deal with each other instead of continuing on their way, while the show presented by the “Shakhla” troupe uses acting, storytelling, and dance movement to build its world inside the car.
The show stars Ahmed Gamal, Shaima Mohamed, Najwa Ahmed, Alex Hani, Haneen Tariq, Marina Shenouda, Aya Zuhair, Amira Mohamed Ezzo, Lola Tariq, Asia Ali and Rawan Haitham, while the artist Ezzat Zein is a guest of honor at the events and Asia Ali is responsible for the motion design. It is written and directed by Mai Amer and was presented for the first time on Sunday evening in Cairo.
Director Mai Amer told Asharq Al-Awsat, “The experience of the (Shakhla) troupe is based primarily on giving non-professional women a space to discover their artistic abilities and present theatrical performances,” explaining that “the troupe has been working for some time with women who have a desire to discover their artistic side, and have undergone multiple training, in parallel with the project’s interest in women’s issues and what they are exposed to in their daily lives.”
She added that the idea for the show began about a year ago, from a question about the nature of what happens in places where women gather alone, and from that came the idea of the women’s carriage in the metro. While researching this area, the team discovered that a number of women had experienced a metro stop or delay, and that these unplanned moments could open the door to many stories and experiences, which prompted the team to turn it into a dramatic material that explores women’s lives and what is hidden behind the details of daily trips.
Amer explained that the ISIS Festival’s announcement of the “Nohad Saliha Incubator,” and choosing sponsorship as its focus, encouraged the band to advance the project, because the idea is linked to relationships, care, and solidarity between women. After meetings with the festival team and those responsible for the incubator, work began on developing the idea with writer and critic Rasha Abdel Moneim by relying on women who had watched some of the stories covered in the project or had similar experiences, which made the team keen for the drama to be closer to reality. The characters must remain connected to those with real experiences.
She pointed out that character building was done through group writing and lengthy sessions, during which stories that could intersect within the show were collected and linked dramatically. The concept was based on a group of women and a man talking about the things they saw or experienced, before the stories turned into interconnected characters and situations, pointing out that 8 characters were based on true stories of the heroines of the show themselves, while the ninth character came from another story that the team found fit to become part of this world.
In conclusion, she emphasized that working with non-professional women represents a different kind of challenge, as the main difficulty is not in performance, as much as it is related to adhering to training dates, due to the participants’ connection to their work and private lives. But she believes, on the other hand, that the closeness of the performers to the characters they embody represents an essential element in the experience, because she prefers for the theatrical character to remain close to her true nature, rather than presenting a performance completely separate from the experiences of her companions.
It is noteworthy that the show stars Ahmed Gamal, Shaima Mohamed, Najwa Ahmed, Alex Hani, Haneen Tariq, Marina Shenouda, Aya Zuhair, Amira Mohamed Ezzo, Lola Tariq, Asia Ali and Rawan Haitham, while the artist Ezzat Zein is a guest of honor at the events, and Asia Ali took responsibility for the motion design, and it was written and directed by Mai Amer and was presented for the first time on Sunday evening in Cairo.
