AMERICAN THEATRE?: It was a gray New York City afternoon, weeks ahead of the 2024 U.S. election. But on the third floor of New York Theatre Workshop, we were sitting in an arts center in 2011 Cairo in the aftermath of a revolution. The lights were off and the room was lit by a single shaft of sun from a skylight. Red and orange embroidered poufs and woven cushions were scattered over the hard rehearsal floor, along with an oud, a doumbek, hand drums, and a giant papier-mâché caricature head of Hosni Mubarak.
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The creators’ ability to weave traditional Middle Eastern music and Western musical theatre structures together feels like a metaphor for bridging cultural divides. What stood out most was the performers’ focus on humanizing Arab characters. Too often, Arabs in Western media are reduced to stereotypes—villains, victims, or caricatures. This show challenges that, showing activists as multi-dimensional individuals with humor, flaws, and love stories. It resonates with discussions in sociology about the power of representation in shaping public opinion. When marginalized groups are only depicted through the lens of conflict or "the other," it reinforces biases and distances audiences. We Live in Cairo directly combats this by asking audiences to see themselves in these characters. I also appreciated how the show doesn’t offer neat resolutions. The revolution’s aftermath—confusion, setbacks, and lingering hope—mirrors how progress in real life is often messy and incomplete.
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