More than 60 emerging and experienced UAE-based writers, actors and directors, cutting across age groups and nationalities, are infusing the Sharjah Fringe festival with a vibrant energy with a wide genre of 10-minute plays under the first-ever Short+Sweet Sharjah banner.

Teenager Mohammed Abeer and veteran Sunil Jasuja owned the stage at Masrah Al Qasba – Theatre with their electrifying performances, giving new perspectives to comedy and tragedy respectively, through their well-crafted scripts and background scores.

From tragic tales to romantic comedies and plots with an unexpected twist, the exciting range of contemporary works presented at Short+Sweet, were both heartwarming and entertaining.

Comedy nights at Sharjah Fringe

Laughter decibels across Sharjah just got a wee bit louder as seasoned stand-up comedians from diverse backgrounds across the UAE are bringing the house down with their delightful tongue-in-cheek humour at the ongoing Sharjah Fringe Festival.

In recent years, stand-up comedy has acquired a massive fan following on the mainstream performance circuit in the UAE. Comedy nights at Sharjah Fringe feature a host of homegrown talents, giving the multicultural audience at the festival more reasons to burst into applause than ever before.

Billed as being “too local for expats and too expat for locals”, Abdullah Al Qassab, who hails from Sharjah, showed the audience at Al Qasba what it is like to laugh at your own reality.

His wise cracks on Indian movies that asks you to more than suspend disbelief and “break possibly every law in Physics”; his ‘English education’ under his high-school teachers; and tips on identifying nationalities across the Gulf region; drew loud guffaws as the audience wholeheartedly agreed with his wry observations.

Al Qassab, who has been pushing boundaries through comedy in the UAE, explains that the comedy culture existed even in traditional Emirati societies but in verse form. “Poetry was the medium through which poets, who were also public speakers, roasted one another. Satirical poems were an integral element of Arab culture and it is believed that it was a caustic poem that cost renowned poet, AlMutanabbi, his life.”

“The 90s and the turn of the century were all about mocking accents, but I avoid boosting stereotypes,” adds Al Qassab.

“I don’t want to make people laugh for the perception they have of a culture – that doesn’t require much effort,” says the Emirati social activist, who believes stand-up comedy should be a mix between entertainment and art, as he highlights both cultural and societal issues in his regular gigs.

Other prominent UAE-based open mic artists at the Sharjah Fringe who charmed the audience in a similar vein, joking about their own lives, included Taishan Paschall, ‘the Comedy Bawse’; Mohamed Ali ‘Momos’; ‘Unladylike’ Arzoo Malhotra; and ‘T Bone’ Tabarak Razvi; amongst a host of others.