Waffle Hearts Family Play 2026 in Dubai

Waffle Hearts Family Play 2026 in Dubai brings the stage version of Maria Parr’s much-loved Norwegian children’s novel to the Playhouse Studio at the New Covent Garden Theatre, Mall of the Emirates, on Sunday 15 November. Performed in Russian under its Russian title Vafelnoe Serdtse (Вафельное сердце), the one-hour production is a solo show in which a single actor plays an entire village, and this is its first visit to Dubai. It is recommended for ages 8 to 14 and for families watching together.

The book behind the play

Maria Parr was born in 1981 in Vanylven, on Norway’s west coast, and Waffle Hearts (Vaffelhjarte) was her debut novel in 2005. It won the Nynorsk Children’s Book Award the same year, was published in English in 2013, and has become a modern children’s classic. Parr has since won Norway’s Brage Prize three times, including for Lena, the Sea, and Me, which returns to the same two friends.

The Russian-language production uses Olga Drobot’s translation of the book, and keeps the novel’s characters, setting and gentle humour.

The story of Trille and Lena

Waffle Hearts is set in a tiny Norwegian village by a bay called Shchepki-Matilda in the Russian version. Nine-year-old Trille is a cautious, dreamy boy, and his next-door neighbour Lena is fearless. She pulls him into one adventure after another, from rigging a cable line between their bedroom windows to a risky trip out to sea.

Between the escapades come quieter scenes: morning talks with Trille’s grandfather and time spent in his grandmother’s warm kitchen. The play compresses a whole year of the children’s lives into one hour, and like the book, it deals with friendship, loyalty and growing up, including first encounters with loss, without talking down to its audience.

The title comes from the heart-shaped waffles that appear in both the book and the show. In the story, they stand for home and comfort, a thread that runs quietly through the year.

One actor, a whole village

The production was premiered in 2017 by the company Creative Association 9 (Tvorcheskoe Obyedinenie 9), directed by Ivan Pachin. Its defining feature is that Egor Strokov plays every character alone, switching between Trille, Lena, the grandparents and the rest of the village.

Strokov won the Best Male Role award at Arlekin, the national children’s theatre festival in Russia, for this performance. In Moscow, the same one-man production by Pachin and Strokov has played at the School of Dramatic Art theatre, where it is described as a story about a boy, his unusual family and the friendship between boys and girls. Watching one performer move between so many characters is part of the appeal for young audiences, who quickly learn to follow each voice and gesture. The chamber format suits a story that is as much about small, intimate moments as it is about adventures.

The venue: Playhouse Studio, New Covent Garden Theatre

The Playhouse Studio is a studio space within the New Covent Garden Theatre on Level 2 of Mall of the Emirates in Al Barsha. Its compact size works well for a one-actor play, bringing the audience close to the stage. Seating is split into Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and VIP categories.

The listing directs visitors to enter from the parking side on Level 2, near rows A5 and A6, then follow the theatre signs. Doors open 30 minutes before the show, which is listed at 11:30am.

Getting there

• By car: take Sheikh Zayed Road (E11), exit towards Umm Suqeim Street and follow the signs for Mall of the Emirates; a navigation app helps with the final turns.
• By bus: route 84 stops at Mall of the Emirates 2-1, around a five-minute walk away.
• By Metro: take the Red Line to Mall of the Emirates station, about a 17-minute walk to the theatre.
• By taxi: book through an app or hail one to Mall of the Emirates.

Who it suits

The play is recommended for children aged 8 to 14, close to the age of Trille and Lena themselves, and it is billed as a show for the whole family. It is performed in Russian, so it is best for Russian-speaking families, or for children learning Russian who already know the story. Fans of the book will recognise Trille and Lena’s adventures, and it makes a good introduction for children who have not read it yet. Those who enjoy it can carry on with Lena, the Sea, and Me, which picks up the friendship again.

With a late-morning start inside Mall of the Emirates, it fits easily into a family Sunday with lunch afterwards. If plans change, tickets can be passed to another buyer through Platinumlist’s resale option.

For more family outings, see our kids’ events in Dubai, browse shows and theatre, or check things to do in November.