What’s On profiles The Imagineer, whose daring new theatre show comes to Dubai, Meydan IMAX Theatre, between April 17 and 19. Find out how to book tickets.


Part circus, part theatre, part film, The Imagineer is one of the more unusual stage shows to come to the UAE in recent years and will probably have you scratching your head in a mixture of wonder and bewilderment.

A highly-skilled cast of acrobats, dancers, choreographers and contortionists, some of them from the Las Vegas run of the show, collaborate to produce a surreal 70-minute trip inside the mind of the lead character.

The Imagineer was created by Le Petit Cirque (‘the little circus’), an experimental acrobat and theatre group based in Las Vegas, and is suitable for all ages. Its star is Dutch actor, dancer and acrobat Halili Gashi. “The show combines all three elements of circus, theatre and film to pull the audience out of reality to a fantasy world of the Imagineer himself,” he says. “We use music, illusion, acting and language to tell the story of the world the imagineer is entering. After the show I want to see everybody in the audience waking up with a smile from a beautiful dream and going back to their own reality.”

The hardest acrobatic move Gashi performs in the show is something of his own creation which, he says, has never been done by anybody else. “It’s a windmill with closed legs while keeping a straight body and turning. I lie down, lift my legs high and twist them in the air like a windmill.” Probably best not to try it at home.

April 17 to 19
Meydan IMAX Theatre, Dubai, Thur 8pm, Fri and Sat 5pm and 8pm, Dhs150. platinumlist.net