THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

[ksegaole]

Event: The Arabian Nights
Dates: 26 – 29 August & 2 – 5 September 2009
Time: 19:30
Venue: UJ Arts Centre, Kingsway, Auckland Park


Never before has this ancient collection of fabulous tales been told in this way. Sylvaine Strike directs Mary Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights in a style which infuses with poetic magic the heart wrenching love tales, hysterically funny moral anecdotes and lyrical extravaganzas of the work. Contrary to the collection of tales to which the western world is more familiar (Aladdin, Sinbad etc), Zimmerman’s selection of the lesser known stories makes this production all the more exotic and entertaining.
After finding his wife in the arms of a slave, King Sharyar enters a perpetual cycle of vengeance by nightly marrying, making love to, and killing a virgin girl. This has gone on for three long years by the time Scheherazade and her sister Dunyazade (the last two virgins left in his kingdom) are summoned by Sharyar to undergo the same fate.
The intriguing character of Scheherazade has come to represent one of the strongest female icons to immerge from literature throughout the ages. The act of gradually disarming King Sharyar’s violence through the telling of her many stories ( she tells him as many as 1001 tales in order to survive another day) is testimony to the healing powers of storytelling. With each new tale comes a world of laughter, tears, marvel, fantasy, escape and forgiveness.
With a handpicked cast of twenty captivating student performers weaving this tapestry of tales, you’ve simply got to think Bollywood meets Laurence of Arabia... and The English Patient. Strike’s highly physical interpretation of a wordy text together with Paul Ditchfield’s delightful musical compositions promise high octane entertainment, a feast of stories for the whole family.

The Arabian Nights will be staged from 26 August to 5 September 2009 at the UJ Arts Centre. Tickets cost R65 and are available at Computicket – http://www.computicket.com or 011 340 8000. For more information visit http://www.uj.ac.za/artscentre or call Ehllené on 011 559 3058.