Un Air de Famille

Dubai’s long-established bastion of Francophone theatre, Culture Emulsion, looks like it has picked another winner with this French comedy – the play by Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri was a great success in 1994, and it was made into an equally successful film a couple of years later. And it is very funny, a sharp and blackish comedy about the ties that unite (and sometimes suffocate). Every Friday the Mesnards gather at the family café before going to dinner; but for this night the unspoken tensions and buried frustrations are revealed. There’s a second performance tomorrow (23 October).