MIDNIGHT IN CAIRO: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring Twenties

Cairo between the wars was a "wild cosmopolitan playground of fun and glamour", and this panorama of the nightclub scene focuses on the women performers and impresarios who wielded huge influence and enjoyed a high degree of independence. Ezbekiyya was Cairo's nightlife district, whose leading venues included the Grand Kursaal music hall, the Printania Theatre, the Casino de Paris cabaret and the Abbaye des Roses night club, while Emad al Din was the street at the hub of the entertainment industry. In 1919 Egypt left British colonial rule and part of the Ezbekiyya quarter's appeal was the cosmopolitan population, including WWI refugees, spies, and sybaritic aristocrats, but as WWII approached the clientele was mainly Muslim and Arab. Yaqub "James" Sanua was the influential polyglot impresario regarded as the father of Cairo theatre pre-WWI, but the feminist movement was also strong and the dancer Shafiqa had been queen of the music hall in the 1890s, earning fabulous sums and blazing a trail for the feminist decadence of inter-war nightlife. In the 1920s the English dancer and choreographer Dolly Smith was in demand at every big theatre, while Mounira al-Mahdiyya, a leading singer of the 20s, was known to step in to male roles if required, following in the footsteps of Sarah Bernhart, the world's biggest female star. Mounira adapted Carmen for her troupe and thus helped to launch Arabic opera. The vaudeville artist Rose al Youssef was mentored by the impresario Aziz-Eid, and the dancer Fatima Rushdi actually married Aziz -Eid in spite of the fact that he was 40 to her 16. Fatima went on to a theatrical and film career that included playing Mark Antony in Julius Caesar among other male roles as an homage to Bernhart, and she was also a writer and director. Aziza Amir was another legendary performer who moved into film production and screenwriting. Meanwhile Madame Langlois, a procurer with violent red dyed hair, bought a chateau on the proceeds of pimping "Exquisite Parisian girls". After WWII a new puritanism set in and there were fewer vaudeville opportunities for women, with the Ezbekiyya falling into decay and disuse. A rollercoaster narrative. 373pp, black and white reproductions.