Just how many short play festivals does one town need? The answer may become clearer during April and May, when Short+Sweet Dubai goes head to head with X Fest DXB.
The backstory is that The Junction in Alserkal Avenue, which is celebrating its tenth year as a community-oriented theatre, had hosted Short+Sweet in the first of those years and ran it under licence for the next eight. Last year a dispute with the Short+Sweet organisation (which has many theatre and film festivals around the world under the brand) resulted in Short+Sweet setting up its own office here – and as we noted last week, it’s running the festival much as before but using the New Covent Garden Theatre in Mall of the Emirates.
Meanwhile The Junction decided to leverage its long-term investment in and identification with 10-minute-play festivals by putting on its own. Hence X Fest DXB.
Why the name? “’X’ represents a lot of different things, a lot of useful symbolisms” Gautam Goenka told us – he’s one of the two co-founders of the Junction and its main man. “For one, X is a crossroad, and that’s what The Junction is – a crossroad, a place where people and ideas meet. And X is the multiplication symbol; we aren’t just adding to the theatre experience here, we’re increasing it significantly.”
The format for X Fest DXB follows the normal micro-theatre standard, plays that have a maximum run time of 10 minutes, with performances over six successive weekends and a final selection with winners and awards on the sixth. It’s definitely not a carbon copy of Short+Sweet, though; the 10-minute format is common enough, and Gautam Goenka says the underlying rules are inherently different.
X Fest DXB has two tracks, almost separate festivals. The Main Festival has 55 entry spots and a six-week run on weekends from 4 April to 10 May. A Youth Festival for under 18s has only 22 spots and takes place Sundays only from 18 April to 3 May. Goenka told us that both are nearly full – there are only a couple of places left on the main track – and registration closes on Sunday, 25 January (if you want to try sneaking in under the wire the form is here).
Gautam Goenka is bullish about his new baby. “I thought our stewardship of Short and Sweet was good, especially the last few editions when we were receiving really good feedback about how well-run it was. We’re hoping to do the same with X Fest, though there are a number of rule changes We’re aiming for a festival that is curated more for the UAE – a better fit with performers and audiences here.”
Indeed the emphasis, perhaps the key differentiator, is on home-grown talent and scripts – X Fest DXB is described as “community-driven… built to showcase new work and new voices … a space to experiment, collaborate, and create magic”. More explicitly, the publicity has YOUR PLAY / YOUR STAGE blazoned across it.
Part of this strategy is an emphasis on original scripts (Short+Sweet has a script bank for participants who don’t have their own material) and X Fest DXB has gone so far as to produce a YouTube series of how-to masterclasses to help participants turn an idea into a play.
“Doing somebody else’s work is fine, and there are some excellent scripts available. But we think there’s a chance for the theatre community here to start upping our profile. Let’s start writing UAE-oriented scripts. Sure, they might be a little rough around the edges initially, but you have to start somewhere.”
The dates appear to be the same as Short+Sweet Dubai’s, but then The Junction had already blocked out those weekends for Short+Sweet before the rupture (The Junction’s calendar apparently gets full about a year in advance: the schedule certainly looks packed, with events happening almost every weekend).
“We’re not telling any of our regulars to avoid Short+Sweet.” said Goenka. “But we’re saying this is who we are, come and check it out. The good news is that it seems a majority of the local theatre groups have signed up with X Fest DXB.”
And ‘X Fest DXB’? “Well, Dubai is where we are, of course. But while we’re starting here, our ambition is to take the format to other cities both across the region and internationally. Before we do any of that, of course, the first step has to be a successful home festival with a format that works for participants and audiences here.”
X Fest DXB runs from 4 April to 10 May. There’s no website yet, but you can follow the Facebook page for updates.
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