Laila Soliman

Born in 1981 – Laila Soliman is an independent Egyptian theatre director and playwright, living and working in Cairo. She studied at the German School and the American University in Cairo and obtained her MA in theater at DasArts (AHK) in Amsterdam.

Her works have been mainly shown in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria and in Europe.

Amongst her most important works are The Retreating World (2004), Ghorba, images of alienation (2006), … At your service! (2009), Spring Awakening in the Tuktuk (2010), Lessons in Revolting (2011), Here, There & Everywhere (2013), No Time for Art 0/1/2/3 (2011-2013), Hawa ELhorreya, La Grande Maison (2015) and The National Museum of the State Security System (2015). And more recently Museum of Lungs (2018) and My Body Belongs To Me (2019).

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 text A Diary in Scenes: And don’t forget never to wear tampons at a revolution! was published in magazine Theater der Zeit in April 2011. In Whims of Freedom (2014), five actresses tackle historical material, and its echoes with the modern concept of rape culture. Allowing the power of the spoken word and dance to speak for themselves, they assess what has changed - or not - over the course of a century. In ZigZig (2015), Laila Soliman brings back to life the words of the rape victims, all of whom had made the brave decision to testify despite the risk of stigmatisation.

Opera Woman at Point Zero (2022), a collaboration with composer Bushra El-Turk, is her first production at LOD muziektheater.