Perform Sharjah is returning with its most ambitious season yet, running from 11 October to 30 November 2025 across Sharjah and Khorfakkan. Organised by the Sharjah Art Foundation, the fourth edition brings together artists from around the world in a celebration of contemporary performance and storytelling.
The season unfolds across unexpected venues, including courtyards, heritage houses, car parks and the Khalid Lake waterfront. Among this year’s highlights is the GCC premiere of Laaroussa Quartet by Tunisian siblings Selma and Sofiane Ouissi, staged in the courtyard of Al Qasimiyah School. Drawing from the gestures of women potters in Sejnane, the performance honours intergenerational craft and the tactile act of creation.
Also premiering in the Gulf is Radouan Mriziga’s Magec / The Desert, which explores the wisdom and spirituality of the desert through the combined choreography of text and sound. The performance will take place in Bait Obaid Al Shamsi, a heritage house in Sharjah’s historical district.
Returning after its acclaimed debut in the first season, Ahmed El Attar’s Arabic adaptation of Every Brilliant Thing offers an intimate, interactive theatre experience at Shajar Car Park in Aljada and Khorfakkan. Starring Nanda Mohamed, the play unfolds as a collective reflection on joy, mental health and community. Mohamed also directs and performs in Searching for Love, a poetic duet with violinist Mohamed Sami, exploring the passage of time through music and verse.
Other performances include Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, directed by Muhanad Kareem, adapted from Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, and Minga of a House in Ruins by Luis Guenel Soto and Ebana Garin Coronel, which reimagines the meaning of home through the Patagonian tradition of collective house moving.
A new addition this year, Music on the Barge, is a series of three musical nights that will transform Khalid Lake and the surrounding park into a floating stage. The series will feature ADIGA, a Sudanese fusion band, NOON, an experimental project mixing funk, African and Indian rhythms with electronic effects and Ruhaniyat, a group influenced by Hindustani classical traditions and Sufi poetry.
Through this dynamic line-up, Perform Sharjah continues to position the emirate as a gathering place for the community to come together and connect.
Visit: sharjahart.org
Mariam Khawer is a Dubai-based writer and PR professional whose work spans food, art, and travel across the region. When she isn’t chasing deadlines, she’s likely at a gallery opening, testing out a new restaurant, piecing together one of her mixed-media art projects or at home with her four cats, who keep her on her toes.
