El-Alfy Theatre Company

A detective, a lizard, a whirling dervish & a magic tree turn the quiet life of a married couple upside down.

London-based El-Alfy Theatre Company present a classic of modern Egyptian theatre in a new English translation, adapted by Perdita Stott, and directed by Ahmed El-Alfy.

Bahadir Effendi, a retired train inspector, finds himself in a whirlpool of problems when his wife, Behana disappears. The subsequent plot includes a detective, a lizard, a time-traveling dervish, and a magic tree, who all contribute to turn the quiet life of a married couple upside down. With shifting timelines, multiple locations, simultaneous scenes, and cultural misunderstandings, The Tree Climber is a fast-paced farce and a major work of absurdist theatre in Egypt.

Tawfik Al Hakeem is Egypt’s most renowned playwright of the 20th century. The Tree Climber was written in 1962.