23 November – 6 January
The collection of ancient Middle Eastern folk tales known as One Thousand And One Nights (or The Arabian Nights) has long held a fascination for Western readers. Each story is told nightly by newly-wed Scheherazade to her misogynist husband, a cruel king who has been in the habit of executing all his previous brides immediately after the wedding night to prevent them from cuckolding him. Scheherazade cleverly employs cliff-hangers each night, leaving the king wanting to hear more. After 1001 tales he relents, and she survives. In the Bristol Old Vic’s Arabian Nights writer Sonali Bhattacharyya has put Scheherazade centre stage, so the focus is less upon the stories she weaves, and more upon the relationship she has with the king and, more importantly, with the community she comes from.
The importance of community is this show’s central theme, with the stated aim being ‘to stage a big show that would appeal to every community and every family in Bristol.’ As directed by Blanche McIntyre, there are certainly elements of this version of Arabian Nights that everyone can enjoy, particularly Nicholas Karimi’s scenery-chewing performance as a tyrannical king endowed with all the petulant self-centredness of a spoilt toddler.
This is a monarch who can be reduced to tears of frustration if his jar of olives has not been placed precisely where he wants it. He is not quite as vicious as in the traditional tales, so the previous wives are imprisoned rather than executed. Patrick Osborne gives a winning performance as the king’s long suffering adviser, bowing to his every whim. In a performance conveying spirited resourcefulness, Yasemin Özdemir is a very likeable ‘Schere’, cleverly leading the egocentric king to believe that all her tales are essentially about his own heroic qualities. The most engaging and enjoyable scenes in the show are those where the king acts out the stories as he hears them, wrestling with monsters and nearly being devoured by a giant snake. However, after a while Schere begins to run out of story-telling ideas and is in danger of joining her predecessors in the dungeon. Will her family come to her rescue? They will, and so will the wider community. Even the women trapped in the dungeon will have a part to play.
The cast of eight actors energetically create eleven different roles, but shifts in mood are not as clearly delineated as they might be, and the use of amplification tends to create a stridency both in the songs and in the dialogue. There is a tendency towards didacticism, with frequent references to a wide range of contemporary topics regarding, for example, eco-awareness and social inequality. Thus the king is seen diverting a river, uprooting rare wild flowers, and disrupting insect life. Eventually, his role as king is judged unacceptable, and we learn of another land where everyone is equal. This is all very worthy, but it does tend to create a sense of earnest preachiness that detracts from the central narrative. Arabian Nights tries too hard to hit too many targets, and in the process the opportunity for creating the kind of theatrical magic that characterises the best kind of festive, family show is lost. Worthy, yes, but for me this Arabian Nights never quite takes flight.
★★★☆☆ Mike Whitton, 30 November 2023
Photographer credit: Ellie Kurtz
