Cairo’s golden age of cabaret
A new book by Raphael Cormack looks at the magical world of downtown Cairo and the female stars of Egypt’s roaring ‘20s
In downtown Cairo in the early 20th century, you could hardly walk a few metres without coming across a theatre, a cinema, a cabaret, a bar, a music hall, or some other kind of dive. The city was a magnet for singers, dancers, actors, and scores of other performers, who came from all over the world – Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Hungary, France and elsewhere. The 1920s and early 1930s is now remembered as the golden age of Cairo’s cabaret scene, when the champagne flowed until the wee small hours.
A hundred years on many of the great landmarks of this era have disappeared. Some were destroyed in the infamous Cairo Fire of 1952 when, after a massacre by British troops on the Suez Canal, rioters set much of the district aflame. Others simply fell out of use or were replaced by shops and cinemas. In 1971, Cairo’s opera house, where Verdi’s Aida premiered, burned down. It is true that many of the most famous nightspots have completely disappeared – The Kursaal, The Casino de Paris, The Majestic Theatre, The Alhambra, The Thousand and One Nights music hall – but many traces do still survive. They can be seen on a stroll through the old entertainment district.
Ezbekiyya Gardens
Cairo’s nightlife district spread from the large green space at its centre: the Ezbekiyya Gardens. They had been laid out in elegant Parisian fashion in the mid-19th century by Jean-pierre Barillet-deschamps. In their heyday, the gardens were a popular spot for an evening stroll and were littered with a selection of kiosks, restaurants and stages where you could get a drink or watch a show. Today, only a small corner of the original gardens remain, beside the old Opera Square. The rest has been replaced by an (excellent) book market and a Metro station among other things. This little slice gives a sense of what the whole might once have been like. The redone National Theatre also still puts on plays in another corner of what was once the gardens.
Opera Square
Although the lavish opera house itself, loosely modelled on Milan’s La Scala, burned down in the 1970s, the wide square that spread out in front of it still survives as does the famous equestrian statue of Ibrahim Pasha at the centre (known to Cairenes as “the finger” because he points decisively forward). A multistorey carpark looks out over the square from the opera house’s old location. Two bronze statues which are now on display in the grounds of the new opera house on Gezira Island are the only things that survive of the original building.
Emad al-din Street
Cairo’s “Broadway” in the 1920s, Emad al-din Street was the centre of Egypt’s nightlife, home to its most popular cinemas, theatres, and cabarets. This was where many nights out would begin. The most obvious vestige of the roaring ‘20s on the street now is the Naguib al-rihani Theatre, named after the most famous comic actor of the era. The theatre itself has a long and complex history, it started life as a cinema then became a theatre and switched hands several times – at one point it even became two theatres, one on top of the other. Now, lovingly restored, it puts on modern plays in Arabic
The Sherazade is at the more respectable end of the cabaret scene
and tickets can be bought from the theatre on the day of the performance or before.
In the decades after the 1920s, new cinemas sprang up in the place of the old cabarets and theatres. Many are now deserted or sparsely attended but one of them is now home to Cairo’s biggest independent Cinema, Zawya, which captures some of the spirit of the old Emad al-din Street, if not the aesthetic.
Other buildings from the early 20th century which had more mundane uses still survive, preserving some of the street’s period atmosphere. The Khedivial Buildings, which stand on both sides of the street and whose large distinctive domes loomed over the action in Cairo’s Jazz age, still dominate almost an entire block.
Alfi Bey Street
Intersecting with Emad al-din Street, Alfi Bey Street was another key artery of the entertainment industry. Recently given a facelift and partially pedestrianised, this is still a pleasant place to see some of the vestiges of Egypt’s roaring ‘20s.
Throughout downtown there are many small cabarets. In modern buildings, often discreetly signposted, there are female waitresses and dancers who perform to music played on drums and a Casio keyboard but the clientele is almost exclusively male. The atmosphere often feels close to a seedy strip club and can be uncomfortable.
The Sherazade on Alfi Bey Street is at the more respectable end of the cabaret scene and attempts to somewhat replicate that atmosphere of the 1920s, with a large stage at the centre and retro decor.
It is upstairs on a building in a site that used to hold the Printania Theatre (one of the earliest theatres to appear near Emad al-din Street) then a court for the Basque game of Pelota. There are also many dancers who perform at clubs, hotels and private events across Egypt and follow in the traditions of the 1920s and 1930s. You don't even need to go to Egypt to see them as many, including Fifi Adou and Amie Sultan for example, have their own very popular instagram pages.
Cinemas were also very popular in Egypt and the local film industry that started in the 1920s is still going strong today. Alfi Bey Street is home to the only surviving cinema from the 1930s, the Diana Palace. Although the exterior has been slightly redone, walking inside feels like travelling back in time. There is one screen that shows recently released Egyptian films and it rarely gets busy. Just around the corner from the Diana Palace is the Windsor Hotel, once an annex to the legendary Shepheard’s Hotel, the main building of which was destroyed in the Cairo fire.
Arabic Music Institute
In early 20th century Egypt there was a constant tension between respectable Arabic classical music and the nightclubs and cabarets of the contemporary city. The Arabic Music Institute, which was built in the 1920s and still stands a few blocks from Emad al-din Street on Ramses Street, was the bastion of a more refined, academic musicology. The impressive building is still open to visitors; it contains a wonderful museum and small but elegant theatre which still holds regular concerts.
Midnight in Cairo: The Female Stars of Egypt’s Roaring ‘20s by Raphael Cormack is published by Saqi Books, price £20 hardback.