Dukan Al Alab: The Play 2026 in Dubai

Dukan Al Alab, the family play about an old toy shop facing demolition, comes to Dubai Opera on 18 and 19 December 2026 as part of the Dubai Shopping Festival season. Presented by Al Qaiser Events, the show follows two children, Sami and Nour, who discover that a forgotten shop is home to a living world of toys and memories, and race to save it before the bulldozers arrive.

There are three performances: Friday 18 December at 9pm, and Saturday 19 December at 6pm and 9pm. Each lasts about one hour with no interval.

The story of Dukan Al Alab

Dukan Al Alab means “the toy shop”, and the shop is the heart of the play. The municipality has announced that it will be torn down in the name of urban development. From the street it looks abandoned, but inside is something extraordinary: a world of toys that has grown up alongside whole generations of children, where every toy carries its own story and the shelves hold memories shared across the years.

When Sami and Nour stumble upon the shop, they are pulled into this hidden world. As they uncover its secrets, one question hangs over everything: can they rescue the shop, and everything it holds, before the demolition goes ahead? It is a simple adventure for children to follow, with a layer of nostalgia that parents and grandparents will recognise, since the play is really about the places and objects that hold a family’s memories.

From Riyadh Season to the Dubai Opera stage

The production arrives in Dubai straight from Saudi Arabia. Dukan Al Alab played the Global Theatre in Riyadh on 19 November 2026 as part of Riyadh Season, where the programme listed it among its family musical shows. Dubai audiences get it a month later, as one of the family highlights of the Dubai Shopping Festival calendar.

Dubai Opera points out that the show is a venue hire, presented by the third-party promoter Al Qaiser Events rather than produced by the opera house itself. Dubai Opera’s own house rules still apply on the night, and the dates also appear in Visit Dubai’s official events calendar. No cast list has been published in the listings we found, so the draw here is the story and the staging rather than a star name.

The one-hour running time without an interval makes it easy to fit into an evening with children, and the Saturday 6pm performance is the obvious choice for younger audiences, finishing in time for dinner.

Dukan Al Alab at Dubai Opera: the venue and house rules

Dubai Opera opened on 31 August 2016 with a performance by Plácido Domingo. Designed by Atkins and developed by Emaar in The Opera District of Downtown Dubai, the building takes the shape of a dhow, the traditional wooden boat of the Gulf, and seats around 2,000, with about 900 seats that can be moved hydraulically to reconfigure the hall. The bow of the dhow holds the stage and seating, while the rest of the hull houses parking and the taxi drop-off. By 2022 it had staged more than 1,200 shows, it has welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors since it opened, and for many children a family play is their first visit.

The building opens two hours before the show and the auditorium doors open 30 minutes before curtain up. Latecomers are not admitted once the performance has started, and the venue asks guests to arrive 30 minutes early. Children aged three and over need their own ticket, children under three are not allowed in the Main Auditorium, and anyone under 18 must be with an adult.

Dubai Opera has a dress code that rules out overly casual or provocative clothing such as shorts and flip-flops, and guests who do not comply may be refused entry. Phones must be switched off or silenced, photography and recording are not allowed in the auditorium unless authorised, and outside food and drink are not permitted, with no eating or drinking inside the auditorium.

Who the toy shop play suits

This is a family show first and foremost, pitched at children old enough to follow a story for an hour and the adults who bring them. Stories about toys with lives of their own are a reliable favourite with children, and the threat of demolition gives the plot a clear goal they can root for. For parents, the play offers a gentle prompt to talk afterwards about their own childhood toys and the places they remember.

If you are planning more family theatre this month, the Snow White pantomime at Jumeirah Beach Hotel runs through the second half of December. Browse more kids events in Dubai and shows and theatre in Dubai, or see our guides to things to do in Dubai and things to do in December.