Sharjah Opens New Chapter with Fourth Perform Sharjah Season

Sharjah Art Foundation will host the fourth edition of Perform Sharjah from 11 October to 30 November, staging a spectrum of performances across public spaces and community venues throughout Sharjah and Khorfakkan.

The season launches at Africa Hall with Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead, a theatrical adaptation by Muhanad Kareem drawing on Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, confronting themes of displacement, violence and cruelty. A novel feature of this edition is Music on the Barge, which converts Khalid Lagoon into a floating stage for three nights, featuring bands including Adiga, Noon and Rohaniyat.

Among the new commissions is Laaroussa Quartet by Selma & Sofiane Ouissi, which reimagines the gestures of Tunisian women potters in Sejnane, exhibited in the courtyard of Al Qasimiyah School. Another original work, Magec / The Desert by Radouan Mriziga, combines text, choreography and sound to recast the desert as a source of wisdom rather than exploitation.

Returning favourites include Ahmed El Attar’s Arabic version of Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing, with actress Nanda Mohamed leading the interactive production that blurs boundaries between audience and performer. In Searching for Love, directed and performed by Nanda Mohamed alongside violinist Mohamed Sami, music and poetry interweave to explore relational turning points. The programme also includes Minga of a House in Ruins, co-created by Luis Guenel, evoking the Patagonian tradition of collective house relocation to reflect on the concept of home, and Souvenirs by Claire & Anthony, which uses dance, shadow play and music to evoke dreams, memory and imagination.

Performances will be staged in both conventional theatres and unconventional spaces as part of an intentional strategy to reach audiences where they are. Venues span theatres, community centres and open public settings throughout the emirate. The floating-stage concerts at Khalid Lagoon exemplify the programme’s ambition to merge environment, community and theatre.

This year also includes two ambitious co-productions: Laaroussa Quartet and Magec / The Desert represent cross-regional collaborations, expanding the festival’s geographic and artistic reach. The reappearance of Every Brilliant Thing reinforces Perform Sharjah’s commitment to emotionally engaged, participatory theatre.