Cairo: Authorities in Egypt’s coastal city of Suez have cancelled a plan to show a comedy featuring veteran actor Ahmad Badr after allegations that the show mocks the 2011 uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
The city’s Governor, Ahmad Al Hayatmi, said that ‘Ghaybuba’ (Coma), a state production, will not be staged as scheduled later this month due to protests from the families of those killed in the anti-Mubarak uprising.
The first person of more than 800 people killed in the uprising was in Suez.
“I have informed officials at the Ministry of Culture of my final decision that the play will not be shown in Suez,” Al Hayatmi said in a statement.
The comedy, which made its debut in Cairo last summer, tells the story of a man who goes into coma after being shot at the start of the revolt against Mubarak.
His coma persists until June 30, 2013, when massive street protests erupted in Egypt against the rule of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi. Three days later, the army, then led by incumbent President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, deposed Mursi, a senior official in the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Several prominent backers of Al Sissi have called the anti-Mubarak uprising a “conspiracy”.
Makers of ‘Ghaybuba’ have denied that the show derides the 2011 revolt and accused the Muslim Brotherhood of spreading false rumours about it.
“I wanted to go to Suez to pay tribute to the first martyr in the Egyptian revolution,” said Badr, who plays the lead role in the show. “Criticism in the play is just directed at the Brotherhood,” he told the private newspaper Veto.
“The play has already been presented in several provinces. We also presented special performances for families of the martyrs, who admired the play. Those rejecting the play are advocates of the dark thinking of the Brotherhood,” said Badr, a staunch critic of Islamists.
Mursi’s one-year rule marked the Brotherhood’s first taste of power since the Islamist group was created in 1928. Since Mursi’s ouster, the group has been the target of an inexorable security crackdown.
