The World's Biggest Little Play Festival Returns to Dubai

DUBAI, UAE. In its 14th year, Short+Sweet Theatre Dubai arrives at a new home and carries a resonance that goes well beyond the stage. The world's largest festival of 10-minute plays opens at New Covent Garden Theatre, Dubai's most ambitious new performing arts venue, on Saturday, April 18, 2026, and runs through Saturday, May 23, 2026. Against a backdrop of regional uncertainty that has touched every corner of the Middle East, more than 250 writers, directors and actors are coming together in Dubai to do what artists always do: make something extraordinary out of their time.

That this is possible at all is, in no small part, a testament to the UAE. The UAE government's sustained commitment to security, cultural openness and civic life has preserved a city where creativity does not have to wait for better conditions. Dubai is, right now, one of the very few places in this part of the world where a gathering of this scale, nhundreds of artists from dozens of nationalities creating new work and putting it in front of live audiences every weekend, is not just permitted but celebrated.

Part competition, part community celebration, Short+Sweet is not a conventional night at the theatre. Audiences vote for their favourite plays each week, steering the best to a Red Carpet Gala Final, a format where a single ticket introduces you to six or seven completely different worlds in under two hours, all written, directed and performed largely by Dubai's own extraordinary creative community.

A Global Platform with Deep Dubai Roots

Short+Sweet was founded in Sydney in 2002 by Mark Cleary, and has since grown into the largest short-form creative platform in the world, running festivals across Australia, the USA (Hollywood), Cape Town, Yorkshire, Vietnam and beyond, receiving approximately 1,500 script submissions globally each year. The Dubai edition launched in 2013 and has grown into one of the most successful Short+Sweet festivals anywhere on the planet. Across 13 years it has moved through some of Dubai's most storied venues, each chapter of its history tied to a different moment in the city's cultural evolution. In 2025, Short+Sweet brought UAE operations under directmanagement by the global organisation, marking a renewed commitment to artist-first governance and a clean slate for its next chapter. That next chapter opens at New Covent Garden Theatre, the most significant venue move in the festival's Dubai history. Opened in 2025 inside Mall of the Emirates, New Covent Garden is not just a new building. It is a statement of intent for Dubai's performing arts. Built by performers for performers, it was founded by Lisa Scott-Lee and Johnny Shentall-Lee and houses a 575-seat theatre, ten dance and rehearsal studios, and Dubai's first branch the legendary Pineapple Dance Studios, the first Pineapple studio to open outside London. Bringing Short+Sweet into this space in its 14th year is not a coincidence. It is a festival that has earned its flagship venue.

How It Works: Theatre That Rewards the Brave

Every play at Short+Sweet must come in under 10 minutes. That is it. Any form, any genre, any language. Monologues, ensemble pieces, physical theatre, comedy, drama, musicals: if it fits the stage and the clock, it belongs.

The festival runs across three competitive tiers:

• Heats (Weeks 1 to 3): Multiple plays perform each weekend, at the Playhouse Studio

theatre in New Covent Garden. Audience members vote, and the top-scoring plays

advance to the semi-finals.

• Semi-Finals (Week 4): The strongest plays return for a second chance to win over

the audience and judges. Venue for the Semi Finals is the Playhouse StudioTheatre,

New Covent Garden.

• Red Carpet Gala Final (Week 5, May 23): The cream of the festival competes for

Dubai's most coveted short-form theatre awards, including Best Play, Best Director,

Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Script and the Spirit of the Festival. Two shows of the

Gala Final will be in the main auditorium of New Covent Garden.

Approximately 85% of all plays are written by UAE-based writers, making Short+Sweet

one of the most significant platforms for original, locally-created theatre in the Gulf. Around

250 actors, writers and directors participate each year, the vast majority of whom are

Dubai residents.

In Their Own Words

"Short+Sweet Theatre was founded on a simple belief: the best ideas do not need three acts to

land. Dubai has been one of the most vibrant Short+Sweet communities in the world since

2013. The 2026 edition, at one of the most exciting new theatre venues in the region, is going to

be something special."

Mark Cleary, Founder and Executive Producer, Short+Sweet International (Sydney, Australia)"Theatre has always been how communities process what they cannot say out loud. The fact

that 250 artists, from every background, nationality and story, can gather in Dubai right now, in a

city that has held steady while the world around it has been anything but, and make original

work together: that is not nothing. That is extraordinary. This festival is proof of what is possible

when a city decides that culture matters."

Seema Keshav Kunder, Festival Director, Short+Sweet Dubai 2026

Event Details at a Glance

Festival Dates Gala Final Venue Address Show Nights Book Tickets Global Site Venue Site Instagram Enquiries Short+Sweet Theatre Dubai 2026

Saturday, April 18 to Saturday, May 23, 2026

Saturday, May 23, 2026

New Covent Garden Theatre, Mall of the Emirates

Level 2 (Section A5/A6), Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Barsha 1, Dubai, UAE

Saturdays and Sundays (check website for full schedule)

dubai.platinumlist.net/event-tickets/105571/shortsweet-dubai-2026

www.shortandsweet.org

www.newcoventgardentheatre.com

@shortandsweetdxb | @newcoventgardentheatredxb

[seema.kunder@shortandsweetdxb]

Art in a Moment That Calls for It

The timing of Short+Sweet Dubai 2026 is not incidental. The UAE sits at the centre of a region that has faced one of its most difficult periods in decades, with conflict, displacement and uncertainty rippling outward from multiple directions simultaneously. In that context, a festival of live theatre is not a distraction. It is a response.

The UAE government's deliberate and sustained investment in safety, in cultural infrastructure, and in the kind of civic environment where diversity is not just tolerated but genuinely woven into daily life has created something rare: a city where people from

Lebanon, the Philippines, India, Egypt, Australia, Syria, the UK and dozens of other nations can share a stage and a story. Dubai is, in 2026, one of the few places in this region where a gathering of this scale, hundreds of artists across dozens of nationalities creating new work together and performing it to live audiences every weekend, is not just permitted but celebrated.

Short+Sweet is one small, vivid expression of that. Its participants are not diplomats or policymakers. They are writers who stayed up until 2am finishing a script, directors who rehearsed in living rooms, actors who memorised lines in their lunch breaks. And on aweekend night in April, they will walk onto a stage at New Covent Garden Theatre, together, and the audience will decide whose story mattered most.

A Festival Built by Dubai, For Dubai

Short+Sweet Dubai is one of the rare cultural events in the UAE that is not imported wholesale from somewhere else. It is built here. Scripts come in from UAE residents who have never written a play before, alongside seasoned dramatists. Directors fresh out of university work alongside theatre veterans. Actors who have been on Dubai stages for 15 years share casting calls with people who have never set foot in front of a live audience. The festival has awarded trophies to writers, directors and performers representing over a dozen nationalities, a reflection of Dubai itself. Past winners have come from Lebanon, the Philippines, India, Syria, Australia, the UK, Egypt and the UAE. The awards are voted on partly by audiences, meaning this is theatre where the public genuinely decides who wins. Short+Sweet does not just showcase talent. It creates it. First-time playwrights. First-time directors. First-time performers standing in front of a packed house, doing something they have never done before. That pipeline of new voices, sustained across 14 years in Dubai, is as much a part of the festival's legacy as any award.

Partners

Venue Partner Global Platform New Covent Garden Theatre, Mall of the Emirates

Short+Sweet International (Sydney, Australia)