The Women's Prize for Playwriting recipient Ahlam to have staged reading of YOU BURY ME at Edinburgh International Festival

Photo credit: Rebecca Need-Menear

Paines Plough, Ellie Keel Productions and 45North have today announced that joint winner of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020 Ahlam will have a staged reading of their debut play You Bury Me at the Royal Lyceum Theatre on 13 & 14 August, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Ahlam won the inaugural Women’s Prize for Playwriting, and the premiere follows the success of the other joint winner in 2020, Amy Trigg. Both playwrights have had their debut shows performed within nine months of winning. Amy Trigg opened Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me at the Kiln in May 2021, to sell out success and critical acclaim - a tragicomedy about self-love, spina bifida, and how shit and wonderful life can be.

You Bury Me is directed by Paines Plough’s Artistic Director Katie Posner, with music by Arun Ghosh.

This story starts with a place. No, a city. A city called Al Qahera.  This is a story about bodies. Young people discovering their own bodies and one another's. Bodies that are violated and brutalised by the state. Bodies that make history.

YOU BURY ME is an explosive, political debut from Ahlam about a generation fighting to live and love freely in post-Arab Spring Cairo.

Alham said: “I hope YOU BURY ME offers a glimpse into the painful and beautiful paradox that is Cairo, and her stories that are full of love and tenderness, as well as rage and violence. I want to thank everyone involved at The Women’s Prize for Playwriting for believing that this is a story worth telling, I cannot describe what this means to me.”

The Women’s Prize for Playwriting submissions for 2021 are open now and close on 12 July. To apply, please click here.

To book tickets for the staged reading, please click here.