First critic Ali Al-Raie, then director Saad Ardash, then playwright Saadallah Wannus, and now actress Samiha Ayoub – I can’t help thinking we are witnessing the final extinction of the last generation that bore witness to the rise of Egyptian theatre, the generation that was our one surviving link to Youssef Wahbi, Salama Higazi, Fatima Rushdi and the early theatre companies who first founded the art in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The Lady of the Arab Theatre, as Ayoub was called, reigned supreme as the heroine of classical theatre in the second half of the 20th century and, indeed, the start of the 21st, starting her career post-World War II and continuing until the end of her life, youthful to the finish. Cultural historian Shadi Atteya quotes an interview with Samiha Ayoub in a 1960s issue of Sabah al Khair magazine where she states that her first big break was in 1955, when, on a theatrical tour of the Maghreb and France, she played the female lead opposite Youssef Wahbi in his play Rasputin, put on by his Modern Egyptian Theatre Company, which was extremely popular at the time, to great success and acclaim.
Born in 1932, Samiha Ayoub was a child of Shoubra, a district then well-known for its preponderance of foreigners such as Greeks and Italians and for being the birthplace of 20th-century icon Dalida, and whose schools were likewise known for having various activities including student theatre.
It is famously said that “Every Egyptian has at least one relative in Shoubra!” Educated at Al-Rahibat School, run by nuns, she went on to attend the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts and studied under the great Zaki Tulaymat. However, she had started her acting career some years prior, with her first movie at the age of 15, in which “she played Mary Magdalene in the 1938 Egyptian production The Life and Passion of the Lord Christ,” writes Ekhlass Atalla in Watani.net. Her next role was in the movie Al-Mutasharida (The Vagabond, 1947), where she was noticed by Tulaymat, who encouraged her to join the Institute and pursue an acting career.
Despite this early cinematic success, one of Ayoub’s greatest and most unusual claims to fame was that she succeeded in her career without abandoning the stage for the screen, as many brilliant actresses of her generation did, including Sanaa Gamil, and actresses from earlier generations such as Amina Rizk, who excelled both at theatrical and cinematic roles. Throughout her life, Ayoub became famous for her roles in classical dramas, mostly in the National Theatre but in other state theatres too, as a leading lady in dramas both translated from Western languages and written in Arabic for the stage.
In her early career, Samiha Ayoub rose to national fame, surprisingly, as the heroine of the radio series Samara, which made her a household name. She quickly became well-known for playing the role of the bold female lead unafraid to take what she wants – a part that naturally put her on the way to villainess roles, given the perception of women at the time (and even today). One of her few cinematic roles, which remains memorable even today, is as the evil co-conspirator in the 1950 Layla Murad movie Shati’ Al-Gharam (Beach of Love).
A shining stage success for Ayoub came in 1958, when she starred in the National Theatre’s presentation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s La Putain Respectueuse (presented in Arabic as Al-Mumis Al-Fadelah, or The Virtuous Prostitute).
It is uncertain whether such a play could have been presented in today’s right-wing religious climate, but at the time it was a great success and Sartre a prominent figure in left-wing and liberationist – as well as anti-racist – movements. The play, about a White woman who protects a Black man from a false accusation of rape to protect a White aggressor in the enclosed setting of a train, became a huge hit in Egypt a decade after it was written (in 1946) and came to symbolise both postcolonial and nationalist resistance. Ten years later, Ayoub starred as Electra in Sartre’s play Les Mouches (The Flies); and the great writer himself came to Egypt to see her in March 1967. He was quoted in the Egyptian press as saying, “I found my Electra in Egypt.”
Her marriage to the well-known playwright Saadeddin Wahba in this period also cemented her presence on the theatrical scene, but her leading roles were by no means confined to Wahba’s plays. The 1960s were the heyday of Egyptian dramatic writing despite strict censorship by the Nasser regime. Ayoub’s loyalty to president Nasser and his brutal, repressive regime cloaked in shining promises of glory to the common people was well-known, but this did not keep her from starring in Tawfiq Al-Hakim’s masterpiece Al-Sultan Al-Ha’ir (translated as The Sultan’s Dilemma and first published in Arabic in 1960), which centres on the conflict between the Sultan, who champions the rule of law, and the supreme commander of the army, who holds that might makes right. Many saw in this an implicit criticism of president Nasser, a military general, and his iron-fisted rule through other military men.
Ayoub’s popularity and theatrical skill, however, transcended regimes. During the Sadat era of rapprochement with the West, she travelled to Paris (in 1976) to perform, in Arabic, with the Egyptian National Theatre, Racine’s Phaedra. It ran for two weeks and was a great success. From 1972 to 1975, she was director of Al-Masrah Al-Hadith (The Modern Theatre) and then moved on to become director of the Egyptian National Theatre from 1975 to 1985. Her career is vast, spanning over 170 stage plays, 44 films, 220 television series, and 115 radio dramas. She was awarded state honours far too numerous to list and honoured in dozens of film and theatre festivals as both a pioneer and an icon with a lasting impact on the Egyptian stage and screen. She was Honorary President of the Sharm Al-Sheikh Youth Festival until her passing.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 June, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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