UAE | Heritage and Culture

Dubai theatre group adds drama to life

There was a time when the Dubai Drama Group had four productions per year, consisting of a pantomime, a comedy, a drama and a thriller.

  • By Mariam M. Al Serkal, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:28 April 18, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Brian Wilkie of the Dubai Drama Group looks through old photos of the group while speaking to Gulf News.
  • Image Credit: Megan Hirons/Gulf News
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Dubai: Brian Wilkie arrived in Dubai in 1976, a time when the Dubai Country Club was so popular members had to wait 18 months to join.

"Plays were very popular, especially the dinner theatre that was staged at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was always a sell-out," said Wilkie.

He is currently the deputy chairman of the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre (Ductac).

The theatre and art scene has grown dramatically since then.

"There was very little to do in the seventies and eighties. There was only one nightclub and very few restaurants. Entertainment centred around private homes and there were many dinner parties. Weekends were spent camping."

There was a time when the Dubai Drama Group had four productions per year, consisting of a pantomime, a comedy, a drama and a thriller. "Since the beginning we wanted to emphasise that the group was for the whole community, and many nationalities were involved. I miss that. Everybody would just join together."

Currently Ductac puts on about two shows per year.

The Dubai drama group initially got off the ground in 1983 when two groups, the Dubai Theatre Group and the Dubai International Arts Group, joined forces. All its performances were at the British Council, since there were not other alternatives. The only other theatre at the time was in Al Mamzar, which catered to an Arabic audience.

One TV channel

In 1979 expatriates did not have many entertainment options. There was only one television channel and one radio station, recollects Wilkie. "The radio station would play classical music from 1.30 to 4pm because it assumed that everybody would be having a siesta and that would be the type of music that listeners wanted to hear," he said, adding that modern music was played only one hour a day.

Wilkie's first time in a play was when the group performed Cinderella for the first time, only because his wife Sami was in it.

The Dubai Drama Group managed to function efficiently from 1983 to 1997 with a proper committee and proper funds. "Then everything changed. That was when amateurs, semi-professionals and professionals all did their own things."

He said people seemed to pick up more responsibilities and it was sometimes difficult to get people involved, but they still managed.

One of the residents who used to be involved with the group was the news presenter from Channel 33, Shahnaz Pakravan, who eventually started putting on plays at the Trade Centre.

While a pantomime would have 30 actors in it, up to 60 people were needed to make the show a success as many would be involved on the financial side, or with stage lighting, costumes, make-up and painting the sets.

"In the late nineties, before Ductac was built, we were down to only 15 people. Dubai has a transient population and it is common for people to get transferred by their company to another job in a different city. But the big blow was in 1997."

That was when the British Council announced they were turning the auditorium used for theatre productions into classrooms, which left the drama group in desperate need of finding a new location.

"The Dubai Country Club offered us a home but it wasn't good enough, because we only had port cabins to store our equipment, and they didn't have an auditorium. We had to build a stage for performances, which had to be fitted into the schedule for games. That situation lasted a few years."

He came up with a plan to build a small theatre for Dh5 million at the Country Club but those dreams faded when the club announced it would be demolished.

"We then got the idea to build a theatre for the year 2000, and by the next year the community and arts centre was in the initial planning stage," he said, noting that the cost was almost Dh55 million.

"But we did not know how to go about it. We were not licensed, we did not have a legal status and we were amateurs," he said.

The drama group eventually got its big break in 2005, when Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, decided to become their patron.

"We were the first organisation in the country to be honoured by her patronage, and Princess Haya insisted that the drama group should represent all cultures in the country, including the modern and those of the Bedouins.

"We started with reading plays in people's living rooms, and now it has gone beyond that. "There is more awareness in Dubai on the importance of culture, but we should not be importing culture. We should export it. The next level would be to take one of our stage productions to Mumbai."

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