A.R.T. Presents TAHRIR IS NOW At OBERON And Joe's Pub In Response To Recent Egyptian Political Protests

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Producer Diane Borger, will present Tahrir Is Now, an evening of music from the musical We Live in Cairo and testimonies in response to both the Arab Spring and the current political situation in Egypt.

Tahrir Is Now will occur Monday, October 28 at 8PM at A.R.T.'s club venue OBERON (2 Arrow Street, Cambridge) and Monday, December 9 at 9:30PM at The Public Theater's Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street, New York). It will be staged by Taibi Magar and feature performers from the Magar-helmed 2019 A.R.T. premiere production of We Live in Cairo by Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour. We Live in Cairo was inspired by the young Egyptians who took to the streets in 2011 to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak.

Tickets to the performance at OBERON start at $25 and are available now online at AmericanRepertoryTheater.org, by phone at 617.547.8300, in person at the Loeb Drama Center Ticket Services Offices (64 Brattle Street, Cambridge), and on Monday, October 28, 30 minutes prior to curtain at OBERON. Discounts are available to A.R.T. Subscribers, Members, groups, students, seniors, Blue Star families, EBT card holders, and others. Tickets to the performance at Joe's Pub are available at PublicTheater.org/Productions/Joes-Pub.

Tahrir Square was the site of the 2011 uprising that led to the overthrow of the Egypt's long-ruling dictator, President Hosni Mubarak. Last month, hundreds of Egyptians filled Cairo's Tahrir Square and other locations in Egypt calling for the resignation of current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. First elected in 2014, El-Sisi was elected to a second term in 2018 facing no serious opposition; since then he has overseen what human rights groups say is an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that has led to the detention of tens of thousands of people.

"Tahrir Is Now," the revolutionary anthem from the musical We Live in Cairo, was inspired by the protest songs composed in the streets of Cairo during the 2011 uprising. Those hopeful events and the tumultuous years that followed are depicted in the musical, which follows six revolutionary students armed with laptops and cameras, guitars and spray cans as they came of age in contemporary Cairo. As escalating division and violence lead to a military crackdown, the young revolutionaries must confront the question of how-or even whether-to keep their dreams of change alive. For more information about the 2018 production, including photos and videos, visit AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/We-Live-In-Cairo.

Production support of the world premiere of We Live in Cairo was provided by Serena and Bill Lese. Additional Production Support was provided by Janet and Irv Plotkin and The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. Education and engagement support was provided by Marcia Head.

Tahrir Is Now is part of The A.R.T. of Human Rights series, a collaboration between the A.R.T. and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. The groundbreaking collaboration spearheaded by Harvard faculty member and director of the Carr Center's Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program Timothy Patrick McCarthy uses the arts and the humanities to explore some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time. Building on the Carr Center's commitment to advancing human rights principles and the A.R.T.'s mission to expand the boundaries of theater, The A.R.T. of Human Rights is designed to foster a new model for community education, civic engagement, and creative expression.

The transformative events that inspired the show and the translation of the political activity to the stage will be the subject of a free public event co-presented by Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center on Monday, October 21 at 6PM. We Live in Cairo: An Evening of Music and Politics with Playwrights Daniel and Patrick Lazour will feature select live performances of songs from the musical and discussion with the Middle East Initiative's Faculty Director Tarek Masoud.

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