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Dubai theatre festival enters final weekend after six-week run
More than 60 plays, hundreds of performers and a new wave of UAE-based theatre talent take centre stage as X Fest DXB wraps up at The Junction in Alserkal Avenue
- PUBLISHED: Wed 20 May 2026, 1:00 PM
After six weeks, more than 60 plays and hundreds of performers, X Fest DXB 2026 is heading into its Gala Finals Weekend from May 22 to 24 at The Junction in Alserkal Avenue.
The inaugural theatre festival brought together students, first-time actors, writers, directors, and multilingual theatre-makers from across the UAE, turning the 10-minute play format into one of the city’s busiest grassroots arts events.
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Hosted during The Junction’s 10th anniversary year, the festival has become a platform for homegrown stories and UAE-based artists experimenting with everything from comedy and psychological drama to multilingual storytelling and movement-based theatre.
“This festival was created because we genuinely believe the UAE has stories worth telling,” said Gautam Goenka, Festival Director of X Fest DXB.
“What we’ve seen over these six weeks is a theatre community that is hungry, ambitious, collaborative, and incredibly diverse. You have students sharing the same stage as seasoned actors. You have first-time writers sitting next to veteran directors. You have performances happening in different languages, by people from completely different backgrounds, all united by live storytelling.”
Across five heats and now a sixth finals week, audiences have watched more than 60 competing productions inspired by life in Dubai and the wider region.
The Gala Finals will feature 11 shortlisted productions:
• The Narrator
• The Water Came Anyway
• Nightmare of a Designer
• The Most Undatable Woman in the World
• The Reading of the Will
• Unearthing
• Palitaw
• Is this a Good Time?
• Final Rest
• How Can I Assist You Today?
• Na(vase)rasam — The Ninth Emotion
According to organisers, one of the defining aspects of X Fest DXB has been the number of original UAE-created scripts staged throughout the festival, with many productions written and developed locally.
Goenka said the 10-minute format itself pushed artists to become more creative.
“A 10-minute play is deceptively difficult,” he said. “You must introduce characters, create conflict, build emotion, and leave an impact, all within ten minutes. There’s no room for waste. Every line matters. Every second matters.”
For finalist and director Ramy Madgy, the format creates an immediate relationship between performers and audiences.
“In longer theatre, you have time to slowly settle into the story,” he said. “Here, you must earn the audience instantly. When it works, the reaction is immediate and incredibly powerful.”
Director and actor Aditi Nath described the festival as “a celebration of artistic courage”.
“The short-play format gives artists permission to take risks,” she said. “You can experiment with structure, language, movement, or unconventional ideas because the audience is constantly discovering something new.”
Actor Jeremie Fortes added that the multicultural nature of the event reflects Dubai itself.
“X Fest feels very Dubai,” he said. “Different cultures, different voices, different energies, all existing together in one shared space.”
The festival will conclude on Sunday night with a Red Carpet Gala Finals and Awards Ceremony, where winners across categories, including Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Original Script, and the X Factor Award, will be announced.
Waad Barakat is a Special Correspondent covering security topics, from law enforcement to local courts. With a keen eye for human interest stories, she hopes to blend it all with unique Gen Z-inspired content.