• Against the Tide (dir Sarvnik Kaur, 2023)

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

    Winner of the Sundance 2023 Vérité Filmmaking Prize, this captivating documentary of class, climate change, and overfishing centres on the lives of two indigenous fishermen. Best friends Rakesh and Ganesh both grew up in the Koli caste, both entered their [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Délicieux: dir Éric Besnard (2020)

    Jardins Germaine Tillion Hazza Bin Zayed St, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The French do films about food really rather well. This tale of a pioneering restaurant around the time of the Revolution is a sweet and savoury tribute to food, pleasure and égalité at a particularly piquant moment in French history, [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Merci Charles

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    Hayk Petrosyan’s Merci Charles project, initiated in May 2021, pays homage to Charles Aznavour through his iconic songs – more than 20 of them in this concert, with a jazz-flavoured interpretation delivered by the Armenian singer and his band (Vahagn [ ... ]

    From AED 160
  • The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

    Radisson DAMAC Hills Hessa Street Dubailand, Dubai

    This month's Laughter Factory tour is back in Dubai for its final weekend. The acts: Paul McCaffrey hard-working British comic, a.great storyteller who deserves wider exposure (and will probably get it RSN, so catch him while you can) Hassan Phills [ ... ]

    AED 160
  • Authentic Flamenco: Daniel Casares

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    The award-winning flamenco guitarist brings this explicitly titled show to the UAE for two nights in Dubai (26 and 27 October) and two in Abu Dhabi (Cultural Foundation, 1 and 2 November). This is the Teatro Real de Madrid production [ ... ]

    From AED 190
  • Arda Aslanian: Obscured / Untold Stories

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

    A solo exhibition for the self-taught Armenian-Jordanian artist who uses her meticulously crafted works to explore the intricacies between visibility and concealment, using drapery as a metaphor for the complexities of human experience. This series of works delves into the [ ... ]

    Free
  • What the Food

    Alserkal Avenue Al Quoz 1, Dubai

    Alserkal Avenue's two-day celebration of all things food is back for its third edition, promising "the city’s most exciting homegrown chefs, artisanal makers and creative culinary minds ... pushing boundaries, showcasing cutting-edge culinary experiments and sparking critical conversations about food [ ... ]

    Varies
  • Kes (dir Ken Loach, 1969)

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

    Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy is a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy who discovers his own private means of fulfilment when he adopts a fledgling kestrel and proceeds to [ ... ]

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

    Vintage Grand Hotel Al Fay Road, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    First of two shows this evening for this month's Laughter Factory tour (it then moves to Dukes The Palm at 8.30pm for the finale). The acts: Paul McCaffrey hard-working British comic, a.great storyteller who deserves wider exposure (and will probably [ ... ]

    AED 160
  • The Night Visitors (dir Michael Gitlin, 2023)

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

    A movie about moths; film and video artist Michael Gitlin emphasises their surreal beauty as well as their ecological relevance. He’s interested in moths as organisms, with fascinating life histories, staggering biodiversity, and a functional importance as indicators of climate [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Sophie Ellis-Bextor

    Dubai Opera

    The reinvented (and genuinely rejuvenated) pop sensation – Murder on the Dancefloor was a hit for her in 2001, for heaven's sake – drops in for one night only midway through an international tour that has seen sellouts around Europe [ ... ]

    From AED 290
  • Merci Charles

    Cultural Foundation Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Street, Abu Dhabi

    The second UAE concert for Hayk Petrosyan’s Merci Charles project, a tribute to Charles Aznavour through his iconic songs – more than 20 of them in this concert, with a jazz-flavoured interpretation delivered by the Armenian singer and his band [ ... ]

    From AED 160
  • Halloween Improv Party

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

    It's all in the name: chills and chuckles inspired by audience suggestions, with the Junction decked out in spooky decorations and eerie lighting. Come dressed in your most creative Halloween costume – best wins a special prize. The price is [ ... ]

    AED 130
  • The Ice Hole – A Cardboard Comedy

    Theatre by QE2 Queen Elizabeth 2, Port Rashid, Dubai

    This production debuted for four performances in May and two in July; all sold out (deservedly). It's now back for a run at Theatre by QE2 on 26 and 27 October, followed by one show on 17 November, and it's [ ... ]

    AED 120
  • The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

    Dukes The Palm Palm Dubai, Dubai

    The final gig for this month's Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Paul McCaffrey hard-working British comic, a.great storyteller who deserves wider exposure (and will probably get it RSN, so catch him while you can) Hassan Phills dynamic Canadian who manages [ ... ]

    AED 160
  • LAST CHANCE Sarah Alagroobi: Slanted Dreamscape

    Artbooth Gallery Centro Capital Center, Al Khaleej Al Arabi Street, Abu Dhabi

    Alagroobi’s evocative, highly textured landscapes provide a glimpse into “a world where reality and imagination intersect”. Her practice celebrates the physical and metaphysical, using layers of acrylic to sculpt imagined landscapes that blur the boundaries between the tangible and the [ ... ]

    Free
  • Authentic Flamenco: Daniel Casares

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    A second evening of performances (at 6pm and 8.30pm) for the award-winning flamenco and this explicitly titled show. This is the Teatro Real de Madrid production that has been wowing audiences for some time; it aims to deliver a taste [ ... ]

    From AED 190
  • The Ice Hole – A Cardboard Comedy

    Theatre by QE2 Queen Elizabeth 2, Port Rashid, Dubai

    This production debuted for four performances in May and two in July; all sold out (deservedly). It's now back for a run at Theatre by QE2, and it's highly recommended. It's an English version of an award-winning French comedy from [ ... ]

    AED 120
  • Xue Bao | Snow Leopard (dir Pema Tseden, China, 2023)

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

    This is a story about how people and animals can finally get along. A snow leopard, rare and globally endangered, breaks into the pen of a herder family and kills nine goats. The father and son argue about what to [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Agraharathil Kazhuthai | Donkey in a Brahmin Village (dir John Abraham, 1977)

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

    A college professor faces ridicule when he adopts a newborn donkey after its mother is killed. He leaves Madras and takes the foal to his home village, against the norms of his community. Bad things start to happen, and the [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Mute

    Sharjah Performing Arts Academy University City, Sharjah

    This experimental theatre piece by the Kuwaiti director and playwright Sulayman Al Bassam examines that brief moment of silence that followed the Beirut port explosion of 2020. Produced with actress Hala Omran and the band Two or The Dragon, the [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • LAST CHANCE I Wish To Be Happy, I Want To Be Yellow

    A group show for an eclectic collection of artists — Mohammad Alfaraj, Aminah Al huqail, Dalia Baassiri, Richi Bhatia, Jumairy, Tamara Kalo, Adrian Pepe, and Alia Zaal. The common factor is that they “cultivate a visceral and intimate relationship with nature” [ ... ]

  • Art With Disabilities: From Frida Kahlo to Stevie Wonder – 11 Amazing Stories of People Who Changed the World

    kanvas Dubai Unit 1, Al Khayat Art Avenue, 19th Street Al Quoz 1, Dubai

    An exhibition created by the Bulgarian immersive-experience specialists Poliforma, using surround-sound and surround-visuals to celebrate "stories of people who have overcome, adapted, or ignored their limitations" through "captivating video inserts, stunning 3D projections, and four interactive installations". Apparently it's "a [ ... ]

    AED 99
  • Dancing Pina: dir Florian Heinzen-Ziob (2022)

    Sharjah Performing Arts Academy University City, Sharjah

    Two spectacular dance projects show how a young generation of dancers from all over the world are rediscovering Pina Bausch's choreography: the Semperoper Ballet Company in Dresden rehearses her dance opera Iphigenia in Tauris, and dancers from all over Africa [ ... ]

    Free
  • Gallant Indies | Les Indes galantes: dir Philippe Béziat (2021)

    Sharjah Performing Arts Academy University City, Sharjah

    On the stage of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, 30 dancers from non-traditional genres – hip-hop, krump, break, voguing – reprise and remix Jean-Philippe Rameau's baroque 1735 masterpiece, Les Indes galantes. It’s an opera offensive to modern sensibilities that reflected [ ... ]

    Free
  • Monday Night Comedy: This Is Impro & Ahmed

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

    One of the Coutryard's two-act evenings of spontaneous scenes and stories based on audience suggestions. First up is the regular Monday evening mix of scenes, stories and narrative improvisation from some of the Courtyard Playhouse's most experienced improv performers plus [ ... ]

    Free but donations welcome
  • Hala Dabaji: Shadow Puppet

    Urbanist Art Gallery Box Park, Al Wasl Road, Dubai

    Hala Dabaji's distinctive paintings feature an androgynous character called Obu ("he has a challenging spirit") created in acrylic on canvas and more recently watercolour on fabric; the flatness and stylised hand gestures suggest a form of communicating that echoes shadow [ ... ]

    Free
  • Halloween Special: Horrible Bosses

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

    First of three consecutive nights of scares, laughter and payback for Halloween. This is one of the Courtyard's most successful improv innovations; the audience gets to share stories of Horrible Bosses, and the team acts out some sweet revenge for [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Halloween Special: Horrible Bosses

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

    A second night of scares, laughter and payback for Halloween. This is one of the Courtyard's most successful improv innovations; the audience gets to share stories of Horrible Bosses, and the team acts out some sweet revenge for you. Come [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Woman in Black

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    Susan Hill's elegantly eerie ghost story has been seen by more than seven million people in the stage adaptation by Stephen Mallatratt, and very few will have been disappointed (or unshaken). A lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes [ ... ]

    From AED 200
  • Rand Abdul Jabbar

    Lawrie Shabibi Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    Rand Abdul Jabbar’s first gallery solo show, curated by Meitha Almazrooei, weaves narrative with sculpture and textile to explore myth-making as a method of preservation and transformation. The exhibition follows on from her award of the Richard Mille Prize ('Earthly [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Manolo Valdés: Domesticity

    Opera Gallery Atlantis The Royal Crescent Road, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A solo exhibition of small sculptures by the celebrated Spanish artist at the gallery’s Atlantis outpost. Noted for his ability to transform familiar forms and classical references into contemporary pieces, Valdés uses meticulous craftsmanship to recontextualise idioms from the art [ ... ]

    Free
  • Vian Sora: House of Pearls

    The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    New paintings and works on paper from the Louisville-based artist that explore pearls as "a metaphor for achieving stability and the needed structural integrity for life itself to regenerate". Drawing on her experiences as a war survivor and immigrant (Iraqi-born, [ ... ]

    Free
  • Fariba Boroufar: In Our Bones

    Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Fariba Boroufar’s first exhibition at the gallery features her signature woven forms. Reminiscent of elements of the built environment, they offer a poetical portrait of our broken present, a protest against forgetting, and a paean to another way of moving [ ... ]

  • The UAE Classical Talents: A Piano Recital Night

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The top Ukrainian pianist Oleg Poliansky plays works by Debussy, Scriabin and Stravinsky for the latest recital in Alliance Française's UAE Classical Talents series, now in its fifth season. The price here is for non-members; AF members pay AED 130. [ ... ]

    AED 150
  • Halloween Special: Horrible Bosses

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

    Last of three consecutive nights of scares, laughter and payback for Halloween. This is one of the Courtyard's most successful improv innovations; the audience gets to share stories of Horrible Bosses, and the team acts out some sweet revenge for [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Woman in Black

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    Susan Hill's elegantly eerie ghost story has been seen by more than seven million people in the stage adaptation by Stephen Mallatratt, and very few will have been disappointed (or unshaken). A lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes [ ... ]

    From AED 200
  • LAST CHANCE Randa Maddah: Hanging Gardens

    Tabari Artspace Gate Village Level 2, DIFC, Dubai

    The inaugural solo exhibition of the Syrian visual artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, video, and installation. In this recent work, Maddah repurposes the vocabulary of traditional miniature paintings to depict "dream-like scenes that negotiate themes of belonging, resilience, [ ... ]

    Free
  • Authentic Flamenco: Daniel Casares

    Cultural Foundation Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Street, Abu Dhabi

    The award-winning flamenco guitarist brings this explicitly titled show to the UAE for two nights (the second performances are on 2 November). This is the Teatro Real de Madrid production that has been wowing audiences for some time; it aims [ ... ]

    From AED 120
  • Candlelight: Festival of Lights at Yas Bay Waterfront

    Arena Plaza Yas Drive, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Diwali would seem an entirely logical extension for the Candlelight series of candle-illuminated musical events. So we're happy to flag up two free concerts for the Festival of Lights, with the plaza in front of Etihad Arena transformed into an [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Pina: dir Wim Wenders (2011)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A captivating dance documentary that celebrates the life and work of the world-renowned choreographer Pina Bausch. During the preparations for the film in 2009, Bausch died suddenly; the dancers of Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, convinced him to proceed as a [ ... ]

    Free
  • Max Richter: The Four Seasons Recomposed

    Dubai Opera

    When it comes to the classical repertoire, you don’t get much more mainstream than Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It seems dangerous, even perhaps sacrilegious, to tinker with this much loved, immensely popular music. But because it has been played so often [ ... ]

    From AED 330
  • The Woman in Black

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    Susan Hill's elegantly eerie ghost story has been seen by more than seven million people in the stage adaptation by Stephen Mallatratt, and very few will have been disappointed (or unshaken). A lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes [ ... ]

    From AED 200
  • LAST CHANCE Bound: Textiles Between Loss and Repair

    Green Art Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The last in a series of exhibitions investigating contemporary approaches to fibre art curated by Murtaza Vali, this group show builds on notions of nurture and care long associated with cloth – which envelopes our bodies from our first breath [ ... ]

    Free
  • The Woman in Black

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    The final performances for this run of Susan Hill's elegantly eerie ghost story, adapted for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt and seen by more than seven million people worldwide. A lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes has been [ ... ]

    From AED 200
  • Authentic Flamenco: Daniel Casares

    Cultural Foundation Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Street, Abu Dhabi

    A second evening of performances (at 5.30pm and 8.30pm) for the award-winning flamenco guitarist and this explicitly titled show. This is the Teatro Real de Madrid production that has been wowing audiences for some time; it aims to deliver a [ ... ]

    From AED 120
  • Three Tired Tigers

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    Bringing together more than 40 artists and collectives, drawing from politics, history, economics and urbanism, this exhibition takes a playful yet serious approach to how animals navigate and thrive within the gaps of urban environments. What happens when animals escape [ ... ]

    Free
  • Lamya Gargash: Kun

    Maraya Art Centre Al Qasba, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

    Through her work, Gargash delves into spirituality, transformation, and the human journey. Her first solo exhibition with the Maraya Art Centre has a title – kun means 'to be' – that reflects the exploration of a liminal state between different [ ... ]

    Free
  • Meeting Mozart

    Theatre by QE2 Queen Elizabeth 2, Port Rashid, Dubai

    This acclaimed interactive experience for the young has been a major success for Sydney Opera House; it’s a 40-minute show aimed at children aged 2 to 10 (and their families) which blends live music, storytelling, and song to introduce young [ ... ]

    AED 80
  • Reminiscencia

    Al Qasimiyah School Sheikh Saqr Bin Khalid Al Qasimi St, Sharjah

    Confined to his home during the Covid lockdown of 2020, artist Malicho Vaca Valenzuela sat down in front of his computer and began collecting memories from the residents of Santiago. His goal was to tell the story of his neighbourhood, [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register