Cairo KitKat Club Premieres In New York

Cairo KitKat Club is an experimental digital performance and installation work by the HaRaKa Platform (Adham Hafez, Mona Gamil, Lamia Gouda, Adam Kucharski), in partnership with artists and specialists from New York, Berlin, Cairo, and London.

This multimedia project retells the history of cabaret and clandestine performance through the story of Egypt's KitKat Club, the now-demolished, infamous nightclub established in 18th century Cairo. The cabaret and its patrons witnessed radical performance practices by artists from Egypt, Germany, the US, and France against a backdrop of colonialist conquests, urban decay, and revolutionary hope.

Cairo KitKat Club shuttles between the past and the present moment, reflecting on the future of performance in a world shaped by borders, pandemics, and financial collapse.

Filming for the New York premiere at the Goethe-Institut New York was shot on location in Cairo, NYC, and Berlin, including the forgotten site of Egypt's Kit Kat Club, which has since been replaced with a bus station, mosque, and new subway station, the iconic Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa ETC (NYC), and the Kit Kat Club in Berlin (now used as Covid-19 testing center) - the first time cameras have been allowed in the notorious nightclub.

Events Timeline:

• Video Installation: December 4-14, daily at the Goethe-Institut New York's storefront windows (30 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003), best viewed after dark.

• Panel Discussion: Available on Goethe-Institut's YouTube Channel

• Live Performance with Adham Hafez and NYC Premiere Screening: December 11 at 5 pm at Goethe-Institut (30 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003). Limited to 15 people, first-come, first-serve. Mask required for entry and COVID-19 safety protocols will be observed.

• Digital Cabaret Performances (reruns): December 11-14, 5 pm daily (Zoom link)

The project is developed through Cairo Critical Cabaret, a performance lab initiated by HaRaKa Platform, experimenting with the form and history of cabaret through the staging of artistic objects, processes, and interventions. The research was conducted in Berlin, Cairo, London, and New York. It includes recently declassified MI5 files, oral histories from the KitKat neighborhood in Cairo, and chronicles of intergenerational clubbing within Cairo, New York, and Berlin's nightlife as we face a contemporary moment devoid of theatres, cabarets, or clubs.

Cairo Kitkat Club is an episodic and modular project, staged in different constellations each time it's presented. The New York premiere is made possible with support from Goethe-Institut New York and Co-presented by La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, and further supported by the Sundance Institute, Hilal Foundation, Kuchar&Co, and Yashmask.