Short+Sweet Set To Take Dubai By Storm!

The biggest ten-minute theatre festival in the world is set to explode on to the Dubai theatre scene next week when Marina Exotic Interiors and 7DAYS present the first ever Short+Sweet Dubai at DUCTAC, Mall of the Emirates from Thursday 21st February.

The festival, which runs until 2nd March, will feature over 200 local actors, writers and directors as they bring to life 50 plays, all ten minutes or less in length. For the first time ever in Dubai, Short+Sweet will bring together all of the leading local theatre groups in one theatre in one night.

Companies to perform at the festival include The Human Spirit Project, Drama Dubai Workshops, Dubai Drama Group, Backstage, Theatrewallas, Star Too, Third Half Theatre and OpenThinking. The festival will also feature visiting Chennai theatre group, Stray Factory.

The cream of the crop of local actors will be on show performing works brought to life by top local directors. No less than 35 local playwrights will have works presented while the international flavor of Short+Sweet is also on show with six plays from Australia, three from India and one each from New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and the USA. Abu Dhabi is also represented among the scripts on show.

Leading local schools are also featured with high quality offerings from the American School of Dubai, Dubai American Academy and the National Charity School (Dubai), performing in Arabic.

An incredibly broad range of theatrical styles will be covered in the festival from English drawing room comedy to Indian social drama to physical theatre to improvisation.

There will be something for everyone with the smorgasbord of topics including Obama family squabbles, life in war torn Syria, the real story behind the creation of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, murderous Rottweilers, unicorns trying to get on to Noah’s ark, the life of lobsters, Dubai taxi drivers, office politics and some suggestions on what to do with a broken shoe.

Poignantly, local writer director Ankita Manikantan’s play A Spoonful of Hope was written as a tribute to her father who is battling cancer, and is dedicated to "all heroes & martyrs of cancer the world over."

Short+Sweet Dubai Festival Director Alex Broun, who has launched Short+Sweet Festivals throughout Australia and in India, New Zealand and Singapore said he was incredibly excited about what local audiences would see on stage over the next two weeks.

"Dubai has never seen anything like this" said Broun. "It’s a chance to see all the best local talent on the same stage on the same night."

"Local audiences are regularly presented with touring versions of some great international theatre but Short+Sweet Dubai is about giving local writers, actors and directors a chance to shine - and I think people will be surprised just how high quality the local artists are."

Broun said the response to Short+Sweet from the local theatre community was extraordinary, far exceeding expectations.

"When we first talked about Short+Sweet in Dubai people said we’d be lucky to get 20 directors, we got 50. They said we’d be lucky to get ten script entries, we got over 100. And they said we’d be hard pressed to summon up 50 actors, we have over 150."

"The excellence of the local visual arts, film and literature communities are well known but this is a chance to put the theatre community in the spotlight. And best of all thanks to the Short+Sweet format you’ll get a chance to experience ten plays in just one night."

General Manager of DUCTAC Joseph Fowler was also delighted to be hosting the first ever Short+Sweet Dubai.

"DUCTAC’s 2012/2013 Season offers a large spectrum of diverse event, initiatives and workshops" said Fowler, "providing a creative platform for locally based performers, writers and directors was is something that was of great importance to me which is why I selected Short+Sweet as part of the 12/13 DUCTAC Season. I’m looking forward to seeing the work on show during the festival. It promises to be an incredibly exciting two weeks."

Tickets are available from the DUCTAC Box office or www.timeouttickets.com

For a full festival programme go to http://www.shortandsweet.org/shortsweet-theatre/our-festivals/dubai/festival-programme-2013  

Emirate:  Dubai

Date: Feb 17, 2013

Back