Lothar Kittstein

A high-ranking German politician is on an official visit in Egypt. His wife waits impatiently in the hotel for the ladies’ program to begin. Her stylist tidies her up, a body guard watches over her. But the wife of the Minister of the Interior, with whom she was supposed to visit the pyramids, is taking her time. Fear of an attack is in the air. The longer the Egyptian woman dallies, the more nervous the Germans become. At last, the situation gets out of control.

Hotel Kairo plays with our fear of, and simultaneous desire for, everything foreign. The stay in the hotel becomes an incalculable adventure for those waiting there. They can only suspect the danger that awaits them, but they feel absolutely that this danger is there. The absence of the Egyptian woman sends their imaginations into overdrive. At last, they lose control over language itself. At the same time, they are brought up against their deepest losses and desires.

“The three characters flew to Egypt on the wings of the German-Egyptian friendship. The heat is unbearable everywhere except in this small hotel room. The dialogues are well-paced and humorous…Hotel Kairo is grotesque; politics and ethics are successfully combined into a net of half-truths, prejudices, and egoism.” (campus)