Laila Soliman

Laila Soliman was born 1981 in Cairo, Egypt and is an independent playwright, dramaturg and director, living and working in Cairo. She studied at the German School in Cairo and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre at the American University in Cairo and her Master of Arts from DasArts at the University of the Arts Amsterdam. Her works have been shown in Egypt, Tunisia, the Lebanon, Syria, India, South Africa and in many European countries.
In 2011 Laila Soliman participated in the demonstrations on the Tahrir Square and discussed the revolution in Egypt in her theatre texts “Lessons in Revolting” and in the documentary series “No Time for Art”. The relation between power structures and the individual often plays a role in her work. She was dramaturge at the Rimini-Protokoll production “Radio Muezzin”. Together with director Ruud Gielens she worked on the script for “Der Fall Meursault. Eine Gegendarstellung” at Theater Neumarkt in Zurich in 2017. Other important works are: “Here, There & Everywhere” (2013), “Hawa EL Horreya (Whims of freedom)” (2014), “La Grande Maison” (2015), “The National Museum of the State Security System” (2015), “Zig Zig” (2016) and “Museum of Lungs” (2018). At Theaterformen Festival 2019 she developed a performance with a group of self-organised women about FGM (female genital mutilation), titled: „My body belongs to me“.
Her play “Egyptian Products” (2009) was published in the anthology “Plays from the Arab World” by Nick Hern Books and the Royal Court Theatre, London. Her performance texts “A Diary in Scenes: And don’t forget never to wear tampons at a revolution!” (2011) and “No Desert Roses” (2017) were published in Theater der Zeit.

Laila Soliman often creates theatrical experiences where reality and fiction come together and blend. She combines documentary material with personal views and different forms and methods of narration.

As of May 2022.