The premiere of Khaled El-Sawy's Messing with the Mind in 2004 on the stage of Al-Hanager, the Egyptian government-supported experimental theatre establishment devoted to promoting young talents, was for many reasons a momentous event. Most conspicuous for the average Egyptian theatre-goer was the fact that the show's opinionated undertones were out and out anti-American, a political stance that the Egyptian government – perhaps currently the region's most committed American ally – would not be expected to endorse, let alone to fund or promote. Talking politics and religion are particularly perilous activities in the Arab world, carrying out this endeavour in as public a setting as a theatre auditorium can be all the more precarious. However, El-Sawy was counting on the public support of countless Egyptians. His strategy involved an innovative low-budget promotion campaign that was aimed to reach the hands, but most significantly the hearts, of the outraged public who helplessly witnessed the American-led military attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq on their TV screens. He was appealing to their anger to get the show through despite the anticipated opposition from the censors of the Ministry of Culture. On the days leading up to the censors' screening, hundreds of flyers advertising the show were distributed by members of Al- Haraka, El-Sawy's creative group. The title on the flyers read: