The Game’s Afoot 2026 in Dubai

The Game’s Afoot 2026 in Dubai brings Ken Ludwig’s award-winning murder mystery comedy to The Junction, the independent theatre in Alserkal Avenue, from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 November. Also known as Holmes for the Holidays, the play is set on Christmas Eve in 1936, when a party of actors gathers at a Connecticut mansion, one of them is murdered, and their host decides that playing Sherlock Holmes on stage qualifies him to solve the case.

The story

The host is William Gillette, a Broadway star famous for playing Holmes. He invites his fellow cast members to his castle-like home for a Christmas celebration, a house the playwright fills with tricks and mirrors. The champagne is flowing until a guest turns up dead, and with suspicion falling on everyone in the room, Gillette slips into character and starts investigating.

It quickly becomes clear that solving a murder is much harder than acting in one. What follows is a comedy of errors packed with wild accusations, mistaken identities and twists, as the amateur sleuth tries to stay one step ahead of a killer who may be sitting next to him. The script calls for eight characters: Gillette and his mother Martha, the married couple Felix and Madge Geisel, young actors Simon Bright and Aggie Wheeler, the theatre critic Daria Chase and Inspector Goring, the police officer who arrives to take charge.

A real actor behind the fiction

Part of the fun is that William Gillette was a real person. The American actor and playwright co-wrote and starred in the stage play Sherlock Holmes at the turn of the 20th century and played the detective on stage more than a thousand times, helping shape the popular image of Holmes with his deerstalker and curved pipe. He also built an extravagant stone castle on a hilltop in Connecticut, full of hidden mirrors and mechanical gadgets, which is the kind of house Ludwig had in mind for his whodunnit.

About the playwright and the play

Ken Ludwig is one of the most widely produced American comic playwrights, best known for the farce Lend Me a Tenor and for writing the book of the Gershwin musical Crazy for You. The Game’s Afoot premiered at Cleveland Play House in December 2011, where the Cleveland Plain Dealer called it an inspired whodunit and a snappy, clever drawing-room mystery. In 2012 it won the Edgar Award for Best Play from the Mystery Writers of America, an unusual honour for a comedy, and it has since become a favourite with theatre companies around the world during the festive season.

The appeal is the balance between the two genres. The mystery is played straight enough that you will find yourself trying to work out who did it, while the farce keeps escalating with slammed doors, quick reversals and characters who are all, in their own way, very bad at telling the truth.

The venue: The Junction, Alserkal Avenue

The Junction, at Unit H72 in Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz, opened in 2015 with a production of Noel Coward’s The Vortex. Founded by Rashmi Kotriwala, it is a 159-seat space that has become a home for Dubai’s community and independent theatre, hosting plays, stand-up, improv, magic shows and workshops. In a room that size you are close to the stage, which suits a comedy built on timing and reaction. Over the years its stage has also hosted local troupes such as Qissa Go, stand-up in several languages, Urdu poetry evenings and Ibsen adaptations, so a farce like this sits comfortably alongside a programme that has always mixed the classic and the homegrown.

Alserkal Avenue itself is Dubai’s best-known arts district, a cluster of converted warehouses with contemporary galleries, cafes and creative studios, so it is easy to make an evening of it before curtain up.

By car, take the Al Manara exit (exit 43) from Sheikh Zayed Road, then follow Al Manara Street, 8th Street and 17th Street, with Alserkal Avenue on your left. By Metro, take the Red Line to Noor Bank station (now Al Safa) and then a short taxi or bus ride. Most taxi drivers know Alserkal Avenue.

Who it suits

• Mystery fans who enjoy a country-house whodunnit in the style of Agatha Christie.
• Theatre-goers who like a well-made farce with fast dialogue and physical comedy.
• Anyone after a festive night out, given the Christmas Eve setting and 1930s glamour.

The play is performed in English and is recommended for ages 15 and over. Exact performance times are shown when you choose your date. If your plans change, the ticket platform lets you exchange your ticket with another theatre-goer.

For more on stage, see our shows and theatre in Dubai, explore the art and culture guide, or plan the rest of the weekend with things to do this weekend.