Haaye Akhtari

As part of global celebrations marking the centenary year of the legendary Begum Akhtar, Third Half Theatre is happy to once again be associated with Malhaar in bringing you Haaye Akhtari, a soulful blend of Music, Dance, and the Theatre.

The show will feature Begum Akhtar’s most famous ghazals, thumris, and dadras, some of which are innovatively rendered in Malhaar’s signature choir style and accompanied by classical Kathak dance. Interwoven through the music and the dance is the theatre which will depict the life story of her journey as a young school student performing extempore to the fully realized Malika e Ghazal—or Queen of Ghazals—Begum Akhtar.

Haaye Akhtari will be staged at Madinat Theatre, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, Mina A'Salam on September 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. The spoken language of the show is Hindi/Urdu and features Indian traditional music in various languages set to classical as well as contemporary rhythms.

Tickets: Platinum AED 350, Gold AED 200, Silver AED 100, and Bronze AED 75.

Tickets available at Madinat Theatre Box Office, Madinat website, and Platinum List online. For further information, please call 050-6882652.

See you there!

Tréteau at the Madinat as part of Shorter+Sweeter

Our little box of magic, 'Tréteau', is a gift that keeps on giving. Having performed to rave reviews at Short+Sweet, Emirates Litfest, and the Sikka Art Fair, it will now be showcased at the Madinat Theatre, Jumeirah as part of Shorter+Sweeter 2015.

Shorter+Sweeter promises to be an annual event that features the very best of Short+Sweet plays performed in Dubai and indeed worldwide. In its first iteration it will feature a selection from the festival's three year history in Dubai.

Some superlative plays; perhaps the very finest scripts from all of Short+Sweet the world over will be on view this weekend and we're quite flattered to stage 'Tréteau'  alongside them as a guest performance.

The full list of plays can be seen here, and we also have the eight reasons to see Shorter+Sweeter here. There has also been coverage for the show in The National and the Khaleej Times.

The shows are on Thursday the 7th of May at 8 p.m. and on Friday the 8th of May at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Madinat. Tickets are available at the box office and at the theatre's website as well as on Virgin Tickets.

Third Half Theatre presents..
Tréteau
Written & Directed by Sanjeev Dixit
Cast: Shereen Saif, Minali Patel, Ushma Shah Jasuja, Cmith Sarkar, Dharam Veer Sood, Siddarth Sivaprakash, Sunil Jasuja

I don’t know how to describe this play; some alternate titles were: ‘It’s All Been Done Before Too’ and ‘Think Inside The Box’. I suppose in many ways it’s a distillation of my love—our love—for the theatre. 

Sikka 2015

Both 'Surgery' and 'Tréteau' get another run, this time at the 2015 Sikka Art Fair thanks to the wonderful folk at Short+Sweet.

Information about the annual art fair along with performance listings, location maps etc. can be viewed and downloaded here.

We will be performing on Saturday March 21st at 17:00 on the Main Stage at Sikka, Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, Dubai.

Third Half Theatre presents..

Surgery
Based on the short story by Anton Chekhov
Hindi adaptation by Sunil Jasuja
Directed by Disha Joseph
Cast: Sanjeev Dixit, Sunil Jasuja

A priest visits the dentist of a small town in India with a toothache but finds himself trapped in the hands of an amateur subordinate… from hell.

Tréteau
Written & Directed by Sanjeev Dixit
Cast: Shereen Saif, Minali Patel, Ushma Shah Jasuja, Cmith Sarkar, Dharam Veer Sood, Siddarth Sivaprakash, Sunil Jasuja

I don’t know how to describe this play; some alternate titles were: ‘It’s All Been Done Before Too’ and ‘Think Inside The Box’. I suppose in many ways it’s a distillation of my love—our love—for the theatre.

'Surgery' and 'Tréteau' at The Emirates Litfest 2015

If you haven't been able to catch our plays at the 2015 Short+Sweet festival, you have a chance to catch two of them at The Emirates Litfest's 'A Short+Sweet Showcase' this weekend.

After a roller coaster Gala Final weekend, we've barely had a breather before we're up and running once again on Friday at 6:00 p.m. at the Al Baraha 1 Ballroom of the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City as part of The Emirates Litfest.

Third Half Theatre's 'Surgery' and 'Tréteau' will feature along with four other handpicked plays from the recently concluded Short+Sweet Festival. A full list of plays being showcased can be viewed here.

Tickets are available online and at the venue.

Third Half Theatre presents..

Surgery
Based on the short story by Anton Chekhov
Hindi adaptation by Sunil Jasuja
Dialect consultants: Ruqya Khan, Kalyan Chakravarthy
Directed by Disha Joseph
Cast: Kalyan Chakravarthy, Sunil Jasuja

A priest visits the dentist of a small town in India with a toothache but finds himself trapped in the hands of an amateur subordinate… from hell.

Tréteau
Written & Directed by Sanjeev Dixit
Cast: Shereen Saif, Minali Patel, Ushma Shah Jasuja, Cmith Sarkar, Dharam Veer Sood, Siddarth Sivaprakash, Sunil Jasuja

I don’t know how to describe this play; some alternate titles were: ‘It’s All Been Done Before Too’ and ‘Think Inside The Box’. I suppose in many ways it’s a distillation of my love—our love—for the theatre.

'Tréteau' wins Dubai's Short+Sweet 2015

All of us at Third Half Theatre are extremely proud and happy to have won Short+Sweet this year.

'Tréteau' bagged Best Overall Production, Audience choice winner, Best Director and Best Script (shared). Third Half was also nominated for the best Independent Theatre Company of the year. The full list of results and nominations can be seen here.

In what turned out to be a dream Gala Final for us, eleven plays selected from the over seventy plays that participated in this year's festival played to packed houses on Friday and Saturday at Kilachand Theatre, Ductac.

The amazing part about this year's Gala Final was that eight out of the eleven finalists were locally written original productions. This was by far the best opportunity for a Dubai written play to win Short+Sweet in its three year history. All of us at Third Half Theatre are honoured to be the first to earn this milestone. Here's to many more locally written plays shining through in the years to come.

The most consistent feedback on 'Tréteau' has been praise for the ensemble cast who took a difficult play and made it look, well, easy. Their timing, their dedication, their hard work and most importantly the fun they had putting this together showed on stage and was the deciding factor in the play having won over both audiences and judges alike.

I think the cast as also surely all Short+Sweet participants would join me in thanking all our families who have had to put up with some insane hours to support this passion of ours. Thanks are of course due to the festival organizers Liz and Alex and to the wonderful sponsors they brought on board. A big thanks also to the judges and the audiences who wholeheartedly embraced our attempt at something completely different on stage.

As I had said at the awards ceremony, Short+Sweet has always been and remains about the dressing room shenanigans, the camaraderie between different theatre groups and the selfless joy in seeing fellow actors do well on the boards.

Here's to the spirit of the theatre, a microcosm of which we endeavored to encapsulate in our magical 'Tréteau'.

Tréteau

And after a rather eventful festival we present our last play for Short+Sweet Dubai, 'Tréteau'.

'Tréteau' is a play that is difficult to talk about without getting into long winded explanations. It's therefore best to simply present it and let you decide what it is. Do hope you enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed putting it together.

It happens on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st of February 7:30 p.m. as part of Top 30 Week-3 at Kilachand Theatre, Ductac, MOE.

Tickets at the box office and online at the Ductac Store.

Third Half Theatre presents..
Tréteau
Written & Directed by Sanjeev Dixit
Cast: Shereen Saif, Minali Patel, Ushma Shah Jasuja, Cmith Sarkar, Dharam Veer Sood, Siddarth Sivaprakash, Sunil Jasuja

I don’t know how to describe this play; some alternate titles were: ‘It’s All Been Done Before Too’ and ‘Think Inside The Box’. I suppose in many ways it’s a distillation of my love—our love—for the theatre.

Mandragora

Also happening this weekend as part of Wild Cards week-2 of Short+Sweet is 'Mandragora', a dream like play about a man recovering from an accident and struggling with his memories.

It's being staged only the one time at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday the 14th at Ductac, MOE so make sure you catch it.

Tickets on the online store and at the box office.

Third Half Theatre presents..
Mandragora
Written by David Sharpe
Directed by Rhea Dixit
Cast: Sanjeev Dixit, Minali Patel

A man recovers to find he has some of the memories of the person who died from the same accident.

Sarah

Next up at Short+Sweet Dubai is 'Sarah', a poignant story of perceptions and expectations. Efferevescent Sarah and strong, silent Nick meet on a blind date. How will they get along?

Part of Top 30 Week-2, it plays on both Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th at Kilachand theatre, Ductac, Mall of the Emirates at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets as usual available at the box office, and on Ductac's online store.

Third Half Theatre presents..
Sarah
Written by Tom Coash
Directed by Sunil Jasuja
Cast: Kalyan Chakravarthy, Disha Joseph

Nick, a New York City firefighter, is expecting an All-American girl for a blind date but finds himself in for a surprise.

Surgery

Our first play for Dubai's Short+Sweet festival this year is an adaptation of a Chekhov short story.

In Surgery, Chekhov takes a simple pastoral setting and places in it two very unlikely protagonists: A priest and a dentist. The play is also in part gleaned from Neil Simon's collection of Chekhov's short stories for the stage in The Good Doctor.

Part of Wildcards week 1, it's on at the Kilachand theatre, Ductac, Mall of the Emirates on Saturday the 7th of February, 2015 at 2:30 p.m.

The festival will run from the 6th to the 28th of February and will feature almost 70 plays. Tickets are available on Ductac's online store and at the venue.

See you there!

Third Half Theatre presents..
Surgery
Based on the short story by Anton Chekhov
Hindi adaptation by Sunil Jasuja
Dialect consultants: Ruqya Khan, Kalyan Chakravarthy
Directed by Disha Joseph
Cast: Kalyan Chakravarthy, Sunil Jasuja

A priest visits the dentist of a small town in India with a toothache but finds himself trapped in the hands of an amateur subordinate… from hell.