Playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak examines the Arab Spring in Cairo

INTERVIEW: HASSAN ABDULRAZZAK

The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest, The Prophet (Gate Theatre), a thrilling play about the Arab Spring in Cairo which enjoyed a successful run earlier this summer and was a long-awaited follow up to his multi-award-winning debut, Baghdad Wedding (Soho, 2007). Recorded: 16 August 2012.

Many writers were co-opted by the Mubarak regime because when it was permitted to write articles critising the regime, those in power could always turn around and say, “You see, who says we don’t have freedom?” But nothing changed.