Unicorn Theatre, London
****
From Syria to London with whirlwind stops through Basra and Baghdad,
1001 Nights journeys across the world
in 80 minutes. Well, 70 actually (almost). Transport Theatre Company’s latest
offering is a devised piece borne out of the stories of Arabian Nights. Our story begins in Damascus, where we find the
exceptionally well-read Shahrazad and her doting parents. In the retelling of
one of her favorite stories, Shahrazad’s father breathes life into the tale of
Abu Hassan and his enormous fart, wonderfully weaving words and laughter into
their world. However, their joy is short lived as Shahrazad and her Father are
forced to take flight from their home country and travel to London to seek
safety from the ensuing war, leaving their passport-less Mother behind. Finding
themselves in contemporary London, the piece simultaneously follows the
family’s story whilst also telling the many tales within Shahrazad’s
storybooks.
The cast of three carries this storytelling piece brilliantly and
Danusia Samal is wonderfully convincing as the youthful and innocent natured
Shahrazad. Ritu Arya really shines in the role of Shahrazad’s young urban
neighbour with a particular highlight in her telling the story of Cinderella.
Although the two young characters do not speak the same language, they
communicate through the telling of their tales; Arya’s animated and energetic
retelling of this classic Grimm fairytale is hugely comic and enough to rouse
an applause from the audience mid performance. Thomas Padden is equally strong
as Shahrazad’s father and his engaging, humorous performance in the opening
story of Abu Hassan quickly establishes him as an excellent storyteller. His
comic timing is fantastic and he commands the stage with such ease that one
can’t help but long to see more of him in the piece.
James Perkins’ wonderful set design creates the grey, concrete
backdrop of London in which the piece takes place. With the audience on three
sides, the centre of the stage houses a raised platform on which the majority
of the action takes place. Surrounded with refuse in the form of plastic
sheets, bags and cardboard boxes, the characters use these props to re-imagine
the far off worlds in their stories and at times, they do so beautifully. In
one tale, as steam floods up through a grate in the stage, the characters
create the demon of the story, who’s plastic lifeless body inflates above it
and becomes a third character onstage. This imaginative moment of storytelling
results in another impromptu round of applause and left me longing for more of
this kind of creativity. However, the use of plastic sheets to create demons
and dresses quickly becomes repetitive and dull; in some of Shahrazad’s
particularly long-winded tales, one can’t help but notice children fidgeting in
their seats.
Set against the backdrop of a contemporary war, the piece cleverly
interweaves the stories from Arabian
Nights and Western cultures, acknowledging that in our modern society, the
Middle East is not the far off and distant land it is envisioned to be in some
of these original tales. Shahrazad’s ability to survive through her stories
takes on new meaning in this adaptation and brings the tales of Arabian Nights into a new era.
This production runs until 17 March 2013.
For more information: http://unicorntheatre.com/1001-nights
@Unicorn_Theatre
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