• Cats

    Etihad Arena Yas Island, Abu Dhabi

    The spectacular (and spectacularly successful) Andrew Lloyd Webber musical settles into Etihad Arena for two consecutive long weekends. Look for decent songs, great choreography and staging, and a well-paced plot (not always the case with musicals ...) Friday/Saturday prices start [ ... ]

    From AED 90
  • The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

    Radisson DAMAC Hills Hessa Street Dubailand, Dubai

    First of two consecutive nights at the Radisson for the Laughter Factory's May tour – note the earlier-than-usual start: Rory O'Hanlon as Irish as his name suggest: described by Chortle as having “presence, poise and timing”, he's famous for his [ ... ]

    AED 140
  • Maktaba: A Speculative Thought Circle II

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Maktaba is 421's monthly gathering dedicated to collective reading, viewing, and discussion across disciplines. For this second iteration, multidisciplinary and performance artist Yoonsik Chico Park leads a dialogue around performance studies: together, participants will "examine, synthesise, and speculate the alternative [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • LAST CHANCE All at Once

    JD Malat Gallery ACT 2 Tower, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Blvd 13A ,Downtown Dubai, Dubai

    A group exhibition that reflects on continuity, resilience, and quiet optimism at a time when the world can feel uncertain. Says the gallery: "All at Once speaks to the coexistence of multiple realities – personal and shared, fleeting and enduring, [ ... ]

    Free
  • Art Dubai Special Edition

    Madinat Jumeirah Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Art Dubai’s rescheduled 2026 incarnation has a basic shape as before – a fair with Contemporary, Modern and Digital gallery sections – but there are some significant changes. For a start, of course, there are many fewer commercial galleries involved: [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

    Radisson DAMAC Hills Hessa Street Dubailand, Dubai

    A second night at the Radisson for the Laughter Factory's May tour: Rory O'Hanlon as Irish as his name suggest: described by Chortle as having “presence, poise and timing”, he's famous for his rapid-fire delivery and the sheer quantity of [ ... ]

    AED 140
  • Short+Sweet Dubai: People’s Choice Semi-Finals

    New Covent Garden Theatre Mall of the Emirates, Dubai

    The semi finals weekend of the festival of 10-minute plays, today being for the People's Choices. The best playlets will return to compete for the top prizes on the Gala Weekend, 23-24 May. Times, dates, prices: 3.00-5.00pm 16 May AED [ ... ]

    AED 150
  • Short+Sweet Dubai: Judge’s Choice Semi-Finals

    New Covent Garden Theatre Mall of the Emirates, Dubai

    The semi finals weekend of the festival of 10-minute plays, today being for the Judge's Choices. The best playlets will return to compete for the top prizes on the Gala Weekend, 23-24 May. Times, dates, prices: 3.00-5.00pm 17 May AED 150 [ ... ]

    AED 150
  • LAST CHANCE Maggie Otieno: Sojourner – The Difference Is the Same

    Efiɛ Gallery 2 Al Khayat Art Avenue, First Al Khail Street, Dubai

    Otieno’s first solo presentation with Efie centres on her signature transformation of reclaimed and distressed materials. Working across wood, metal, and mixed media, her semi-abstract forms explore layered narratives of history, memory, human interaction, and environmental survival.

    Free
  • Safwan Dahoul – The Eye: An Aperture Into the Soul

    Ayyam Gallery B11, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Safwan Dahoul’s most recent body of work continues his Dream series – an ongoing body of work investigating the dream state that he began back in the late 1980s, exploring "the physical and psychological effects of alienation, solitude, and longing [ ... ]

    Free
  • In Abstracto, In Concreto: On Memory and Presence

    Efiɛ Gallery 2 Al Khayat Art Avenue, First Al Khail Street, Dubai

    A summer-long group show for Luke Agada, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ludovic Nkoth, and Naila Opiangah, curated by Brice Arsène Yonkeu – whose curatorial statement defines the show as "an encounter with works on paper and paintings that move between visibility and [ ... ]

    Free
  • Collage Art Exhibition

    Kutubna Cultural Center Madina Avenues 17, Nadd Al Hamar, Dubai

    More than 70 artworks for 43 artists, included those who responded to an open call – "a bold exploration of contemporary collage art" says Kutubna, promising "work with paint, paper, textiles, photography, digital collage, and found materials to build layered [ ... ]

    Free
  • Postcard Poems with Balqees Alhawamdeh

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Writer and poet Balqees Alhawamdeh invites participants to explore poetry in an approachable and creative way by crafting a short poem as a visual composition using colour, collage, and form. It starts with a line from a poem or a [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • X Fest DXB: weekend 4

    The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The penultimate weekend for the Junction's short play festival: if you've been attending all performances, you could have seen something like 70 original 10-minute plays by now ... The strongest return to the stage to compete for the top honours [ ... ]

    AED 150
  • X Fest DXB: weekend 4

    The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The penultimate weekend for the Junction's short play festival: if you've been attending all performances, you could have seen something like 70 original 10-minute plays by now ... The strongest return to the stage to compete for the top honours [ ... ]

    AED 150
  • The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

    Dukes The Palm Palm Dubai, Dubai

    The final gig for the Laughter Factory's May tour: Rory O'Hanlon as Irish as his name suggest: described by Chortle as having “presence, poise and timing”, he's famous for his rapid-fire delivery and the sheer quantity of jokes in his [ ... ]

    AED 140
  • Joke Hub

    Canopy by Hilton Dubai Al Seef Al Seef Street, Umm Hurair 1, Dubai

    A regular Mad Cat Comedy night – "Dubai's wildest comedy show on Saturday" at "the first purpose built comedy room in the country". The cover charge of AED 99 includes two F&B coupons.

    AED 99
  • Un monde merveilleux: dir Giulio Callegari (2024)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A satirical comedy of the near future: unemployed Max (Blanche Gardin) struggles to earn a living by selling stolen robot parts on the black market. But her latest ‘acquisition’, T-0, is too old for the fence; her 10-year-old daughter Paula [ ... ]

    AED 45
  • Fridge Concert Series 49: Célinedee Matahari

    The Fridge Warehouse Warehouse 5, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    The Dubai-born French-Indonesian singer-songwriter is fluent in several languages, writes much of her own material, has performed for heads of state and royalty, earned praise from Shania Twain at the Forbes 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi, and was spotted by [ ... ]

    AED 100
  • The Comedy Lab @ Easy Tiger

    Al Ain Palace Hotel Corniche Road, Abu Dhabi

    Mad Cat’s standup team at their regular stop at the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi's Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks ...

    AED 99
  • LAST CHANCE Collector’s Entry Point

    Fann à Porter The Workshop, Villa 45, St. 23b, off Al Wasl Road (opposite Box Park), Jumeirah 2, Dubai

    A group show of works by emerging, mid-career and established artists priced at $3,000 and below, conceived as an accessible entry into collecting "whether you’re just starting or looking to expand your collection with thoughtful additions". The artists: Ahmad Kasha [ ... ]

    Free
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The Courtyard's popular evening of elimination improv. Ten actors converge for a night of scenes, songs and games based on audience suggestions. After each round you score the players on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one with [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE White

    XVA Gallery Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood, Bur Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The annual Faculty exhibition of the Academy of Visual Arts at the University of the Arts, Sharjah. The curator is Tor Seidel, filmmaker and lecturer in photography and video at the Academy, and his statement includes this summary of the show: [ ... ]

    Free
  • Nataly Aukar

    New Covent Garden Theatre Mall of the Emirates, Dubai

    Lebanese-born NYC-based comic, a regular at Gotham Comedy Club and Union Hall shows in Brooklyn when she's not touring – which she does a lot. This is a new show, touring around Europe and North America as well as this [ ... ]

    From AED 200
  • Cats

    Etihad Arena Yas Island, Abu Dhabi

    The second weekend for the spectacular (and spectacularly successful) Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Look for decent songs, great choreography and staging, and a well-paced plot (not always the case with musicals ...) Friday/Saturday prices start at AED 160, Sunday it's [ ... ]

    From AED 90
  • Lulu Santos

    Dubai Opera

    With more than four decades of music-making behind him, Lulu Santos has a catalogue of iconic Brazilian hits that continues to resonate with audiences through sincerity, melody, and timeless songwriting – songs such as Tempos Modernos, Toda Forma de Amor, and [ ... ]

    From AED 299
  • LAST CHANCE Anthony Akinbola: Get Well Soon

    CARBON 12 17th Street, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Durags are stretchable fabrics worn over the head to shape and protect the hair; in Akinbola’s practice, they are both culturally loaded objects and a material he can reconfigure. For this solo show, Akinbola assembles durags into compositions that are [ ... ]

    Free
  • The Comedy Lab @ Easy Tiger

    Al Ain Palace Hotel Corniche Road, Abu Dhabi

    Mad Cat’s standup team at their regular stop at the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi's Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks ...

    AED 99
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The Courtyard's popular evening of elimination improv. Ten actors converge for a night of scenes, songs and games based on audience suggestions. After each round you score the players on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one with [ ... ]

    Free
  • Comedy Kix: Lose Your Marbles

    Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek Baniyas Road, Deira, Dubai

    The Comedy Kix folk take over the Radisson Blu Deira Creek's Marbles Karaoke Bar. On the bill: Amr Elassal, Emaad Siddiqui, Moncef Boumaza, Faizan Bhat, Saeed Alnahdy and Anton Galvez. It's free, but with a minimum spend of AED 75 [ ... ]

    Min spend AED 75
  • Joke Hub

    Canopy by Hilton Dubai Al Seef Al Seef Street, Umm Hurair 1, Dubai

    A regular Mad Cat Comedy night – "Dubai's wildest comedy show on Saturday" at "the first purpose built comedy room in the country". The cover charge of AED 99 includes two F&B coupons.

    AED 99
  • LAST CHANCE Constructing the Orient: Fragments of a Western Dream

    Bassam Freiha Art Foundation Cultural District Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    Drawn from the private collection of Bassam Said Freiha plus key loans from the Ary Jan Gallery, this exhibition of Orientalist works  unfolds across five thematic sections, each focusing on a central motif within Orientalist visual language and examining how [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Picasso, the Figure

    Louvre Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    A landmark monographic exhibition that traces Picasso’s lifelong preoccupation with the human form. Included are more than 130 artworks from the Musée National Picasso-Paris and other institutions, as well as Louvre Abu Dhabi, DCT Abu Dhabi, and other regional collections [ ... ]

    General admission AED 70
  • LAST CHANCE Sara Naim: From the Perspective of Language

    The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Sara Naim’s fourth solo show at the gallery is also her first public exhibition of paintings, large-scale works produced between 2023 and 2026 that move between figuration and abstraction. The exhibition is accompanied by a new video performance, Mother Practices [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Bashar Khalaf: The Field of Dreams

    Zawyeh Gallery Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    Khalaf explores the relationship between self, object, and other through a focus on 'steel' in public spaces: The Field of Dreams, or "dreams as minefields", remind us of the modern structures of unbridled capitalism and the transformative domination of life. [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE All the Lands from Sunrise to Sunset

    Green Art Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    "All the lands from sunrise to sunset", a phrase attributed to the Mesopotamian king Sargon of Akkad, graphically invoked his claim to total dominion. Taking this assertion as both point of departure and provocation, this exhibition includes works by Alla [ ... ]

    Free
  • Monday Night Comedy: This Is Impro / Film Noir Improvised

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A two-act evening of spontaneous scenes and songs based on audience suggestions, by some of our most experienced players and guests. After warming up with some fun games and scenes, the improvisers bring the 1950’s Film Noir genre to life [ ... ]

    Free
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The Courtyard's popular evening of elimination improv. Ten actors converge for a night of scenes, songs and games based on audience suggestions. After each round you score the players on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one with [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Inherited Lines

    La Galerie, Alliance Française Dubai Alliance Française Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Combining language, heritage, and expression, the world of Arabic calligraphy offers centuries of tradition for artists to draw upon. Curated by DiarBid ArtHouse and presented by Dubai Culture and Alliance Française Dubai, this exhibition features established artists, calligraphers, and instructors [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Jorge Tacla: Time the destroyer is time the preserver

    Al Mureijah Square Sharjah

    While Jorge Tacla was only an adolescent during the 1973 coup against Chile’s democratically-elected socialist president Salvador Allende, the upheaval left an irrevocable mark on his politics and practice. Titled after a line from a TS Eliot poem, Tacla’s "most [ ... ]

    Free
  • The Jazz Room: A Journey to the Heart of New Orleans

    Belcanto Restaurant, Dubai Opera Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Blvd, Downtown Dubai, Dubai

    New Orleans jazz – ragtime, blues, brass – in an intimate, street-style bar setting. Shows last about an hour, and there are performances at 6.30pm and 9pm. Note that there's a AED 150 minimum spend on food and/or beverages in [ ... ]

    From AED 140
  • Monday Night Comedy: This Is Impro / Film Noir Improvised

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A two-act evening of spontaneous scenes and songs based on audience suggestions, by some of our most experienced players and guests. After warming up with some fun games and scenes, the improvisers bring the 1950’s Film Noir genre to life [ ... ]

    Free
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The Courtyard's popular evening of elimination improv. Ten actors converge for a night of scenes, songs and games based on audience suggestions. After each round you score the players on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one with [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Urdu Worlds

    Ishara Art Foundation Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    A contemporary art exhibition dedicated to the Urdu language: according to Ishara, "the show explores how language provides the tools with which we create and shape our internal ‘worlds’. Words, rather than simply describing our surroundings, give rise to our [ ... ]

    Free
  • Space Cadet: dir Kid Koala (2025)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A music-filled dialogue-free feature-length animation about a young astronaut and her guardian robot. Based on Kid Koala’s award-winning graphic novel, it deals poignantly with love, loss, memories and the bonds that connect us ... The film has an original score [ ... ]

    AED15
  • Monday Night Comedy: This Is Impro / Film Noir Improvised

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A two-act evening of spontaneous scenes and songs based on audience suggestions, by some of our most experienced players and guests. After warming up with some fun games and scenes, the improvisers bring the 1950’s Film Noir genre to life [ ... ]

    Free
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The Courtyard's popular evening of elimination improv. Ten actors converge for a night of scenes, songs and games based on audience suggestions. After each round you score the players on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one with [ ... ]

    Free