All Day

Cirque Du Liban: Fontana

Yas Island Abu Dhabi

Cirque du Liban comes to Yas with "the first travelling water circus in the Middle East ... live entertainment, breathtaking artistic performances in a tailor-made aqua theatre, waterfalls cascading, artists diving and performing mind-blowing Aquatic experience". The previews look great, [... more]

From AED 100

Youth Takeover 2024

Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

The Jameel's annual handover of the arts centre to a selected cohort of young visionaries starts on Saturday 4 May and runs to Monday 27 May. There will be multiple artwork and installation "interventions" across the ground floor of the [... more]

Free

Modern and Contemporary Art Dubai

Christie’s Dubai DIFC, Gate Village, Building 5, Dubai

This online-only Christie’s sale takes place 9-23 May but includes a selection of the works in an exhibition at its DIFC base between 18 and 23 May (10am to 7pm each day). We don't know exactly what will be on [... more]

Free

CLOSING TODAY Between Fiction and Dreams

Andakulova Gallery Unit 18, P4 Level Damac Park Towers, DIFC , Dubai

A group show by three artists from Karakalpakstan, an autonomous area of Uzbekistan: Bakhtiyar Serekeyev, Timur Shardimetov and Salomat Babajanov. "They introduced the rebellious spirit of expressionism and uninhibited painting into local art, which was very traditional in themes and [... more]

Free

At the Edge of Land

Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

This group exhibition, curated by Lucas Morin, highlights unexpectedly interconnected geographies, resources and commodities, moving between land and sea to tell stories of conflict, erosion and extraction; it's based on works from the Art Jameel Collection plus loans and new [... more]

Free

Echoes of Sierra Leone

Urbanist Art Gallery Box Park, Al Wasl Road, Dubai

A group show by five artists from Sierra Leone – Hawa-Jane Bangura, Hickmatu Leigh, Julius Parker, Felix Rhodes, Zahra Fakih Zato. To 22 June.

Free

No Bears: dir Jafar Panahi (2022)

Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi

The jailed Iranian director Jafar Panahi plays a version of himself, forced to shoot his new film in a village near the Turkish border whose inhabitants are encouraged to be scared of supposed “bears” roaming the countryside – just as [... more]

AED 30

Dave Chappelle

Etihad Arena Yas Island, Abu Dhabi

The Emmy-winning comedian brings his distinctive brand of comedy to the Etihad Arena for Abu Dhabi Comedy Week, his only gig in the region.

From AED 280

L’hôtel du libre-échange

The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Classic Feydeau farce (actually co-written with Maurice Desvallières). It's set in a notorious hotel, with a motley group of guests entering and exiting rooms that are only sometimes the right ones ... Lies and misunderstandings, frustrations and lack of luck [... more]

AED 110

The Burdened: dir Amr Gamal (2023)

Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi

This drama, Gamal’s second feature, is based on a true story: Isra’a and Ahmed and their five children are engaged in a daily struggle against poverty in war-torn Yemen. When they discover that Isra’a is pregnant, they scrape together the [... more]

AED 30