Witnessing the organized chaos that is the explosive opening of Mary Zimmerman's "The Arabian Nights" is similar to watching a gifted artist's brush transform a blank canvas into a colorful painting. With a rhythmic drumbeat as the backdrop, actors pour onto a barren stage covered in tarps and lit by a single exposed light bulb and quickly expose the depth and richness hidden beneath. Zimmerman's script unfolds in much the same way.
We open with a bleak storyline: the cruel King Shahryar – turned near-psychotic by a cheating wife – has been marrying and murdering his female subjects for several years. As he has severely depleted the number of women under his rule, he sends for his servant's daughters. Luckily, the eldest daughter, Scheherezade, has a trick up her sleeve: each night – with a knife to her throat - she tells Shahryar a new story, leaving a cliff-hanger of an ending when the sun rises the next morning. In this way, our bleak, depressing story begins to transform into a hodge-podge world of excitement and adventure. And what an adventure it is. For over two hours, Zimmerman's adaptation of 1001 Arabian Nights delivers memorable stories featuring everything from highbrow life lessons to the longest fart joke since the Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly comedy "Step Brothers." There's singing, dancing and even a seemingly improvisational back-and-forth between two characters. "The Arabian Nights" is a show that grabs your imagination and doesn't let go. Even when the actors are managing stories within stories within stories, they do so with an effortless charm.
Only the last 10 minutes are a bit of a letdown as the show suddenly (and unnecessarily) veers into performance-art territory. But after two hours of invigorating performance the odd finale is easy to look past.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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