Compared to pressing play on the DVD remote, theatre can be mighty stressful. Along with the extra commitment involved in getting off of the sofa and going out to see a play, the big question - will this be any good or not - takes on extra significance. For the first 10 minutes, it's all you can do not to watch through split fingers, waiting for the crushing silence as one of them forgets their lines. Thankfully, somewhere around minute 12, things start to settle down - the hands come away from the face, one's breathing returns to normal and before you know it, you're laughing along with the rest of them. So it began with the Dubai Drama Group's production of Ben Elton's play Gasping at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre (Ductac) on Saturday night.
Written by the British writer and comedian Ben Elton, Gasping is a satirical comedy about corporate greed in which the brilliantly odious Sir Chiffley Lockhart (Eric Drury) is determined to make money where none existed before. His sycophantic, eager-to-please number two, Philip (George Stothard) comes up with the idea of selling designer air, which soon becomes a global phenonmenon, before turning around and biting them, as purple-faced pensioners start keeling over on buses, and people in the developing world begin gasping.
The concept - which couldn't be more Eighties if it pulled on neon legwarmers and started dancing to Wham - has, according to the play's director Syl Rice, taken on a new significance with the economic downturn. While the assertion that young, aspiring upstarts will do anything to keep up with the Jones' has the ring of the Eighties (yuppie is written all over it) the play was given a new millennium overhaul in 2000, and the updated references are easy to spot. Where there was Aeroflot, there is Easyjet. And mentions of George Clooney and "tiny little Ericssons" have been thrown in to keep things fresh.
It can't have been easy for the four-strong cast (who, this being an amateur dramatic production, also have real jobs): Elton's machine gun-style patter means voicing reams of convoluted logic before ever getting to the point. And his trademark schoolboy sense of humour means that anyone not brought up on a diet of Blackadder might have struggled with delivery. Luckily, some of them clearly had.
Drury was suitably reptilian as the corporate ogre, his deadpan utterance of lines such as "only the British could market a Pot Noodle because only the British could stomach it" spot on. And Strothard as Philip was as close to Hugh Laurie buffoonery as you could get without actual mimicry, right down to the high-pitched giggle and innocent eye-rolling. Hussain Hadi took a little longer to warm up as Sandy, spending too much time staring out into the lights à la Shakespeare when he was meant to be talking to people. And Susan Probert as the manipulative advertising executive Kirtsen spoke all her lines in the same sneery, shoulder-waggling tone - the result being that some did not get the laughs that they deserved.
Luckily, the whole play hinges on the performance of Philip, and Strothard was more than up to the job, managing to combine self-deprecating fun with a touching (but ultimately ineffective) moral fibre. In one hilarious scene where he and The Chief are being massaged rather too vigorously in a spa, he dealt with the double whammy of having to contort his body into various extraordinary positions while making the relevant pained noises with well-judged intensity.
Such is the skill of Elton's writing here that the performances would have had to be truly terrible to take away from the play's delightfully irreverent mood. But best of all was the evidence the night provided of a thriving dramatic scene in the city. It may not have been perfect - but for all its 10 minutes of self-induced pain, it certainly beat a night in with a DVD.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
INDIA'S%20TOP%20INFLUENCERS
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Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
TOUR RESULTS AND FIXTURES
June 3: NZ Provincial Barbarians 7 Lions 13
June 7: Blues 22 Lions 16
June 10: Crusaders 3 Lions 12
June 13: Highlanders 23 Lions 22
June 17: Maori All Blacks 10 Lions 32
June 20: Chiefs 6 Lions 34
June 24: New Zealand 30 Lions 15 (First Test)
June 27: Hurricanes 31 Lions 31
July 1: New Zealand 21 Lions 24 (Second Test)
July 8: New Zealand v Lions (Third Test) - kick-off 11.30am (UAE)
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
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SM Town Live is on Friday, April 6 at Autism Rocks Arena, Dubai. Tickets are Dh375 at www.platinumlist.net
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
Profile of Tarabut Gateway
Founder: Abdulla Almoayed
Based: UAE
Founded: 2017
Number of employees: 35
Sector: FinTech
Raised: $13 million
Backers: Berlin-based venture capital company Target Global, Kingsway, CE Ventures, Entrée Capital, Zamil Investment Group, Global Ventures, Almoayed Technologies and Mad’a Investment.
The years Ramadan fell in May
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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