Dubai theatre festival promises virtual entertainment

With the social restrictions in place in the UAE, the Dubai Festival for Youth Theatre will head online in a bid to entertain the masses and support the ‘Create Together’ campaign launched in the emirate.

The Dubai Culture initiative will use its YouTube channel, along with social media platforms, to celebrate local theatrical productions and promote creativity in these grim times, as part of its long-term efforts to create a foundation for stage productions that promote young talent in the country.

“The authority seeks to employ modern communication technologies in a targeted and responsible manner and provide opportunities for distinguished local theatrical productions, thereby contributing to enhancing the creative culture of members of society and improving upon performing arts in general,” Fatma Al-Jallaf, acting director of the performing arts department at Dubai Culture, said in a statement.

The festival opened with a showcasing of the first youth play, ‘Dominoes,’ whose events take place in a fantasy school and draws its idea from a game. The play highlighted the relation between power and people, and the director resorted to moving the characters as if they were domino stones within the space of a game, consisting of the king, his aides, and a group of individuals from a lower social class.

The play was initially produced for the seventh edition of Dubai Festival for Youth Theatre in 2013 by Al Ahli Theatre and was written by Talal Mahmoud and directed by Marwan Abdullah Saleh.

Al-Jallaf further added: “We seek to create a sustainable, creative environment for the performing arts and progress upon Emirati theatre in a manner that further develop the creative economy and ensure the sustainability of the development process, in line with Dubai Culture’s updated vision to make Dubai a global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, and a thriving hub for talents.”