1001 NIGHTS by Shahrukh Husain Pleasance Theatre to 30 December
London
1001 NIGHTS
by Shahrukh Husain
Unicorn at The Pleasance Theatre To 30 December 2001
Runs 1hr 55min One interval
TICKETS 020 7609 1800
Review Timothy Ramsden 6 December 2001
A gentle, colourful magic journey that focuses more on the storytelling than the stories.I have an axe to grind. More, I have teeth to grind and they come under threat whenever Christmas shows are lumped together as pantomime. Here for example is a work of wonder that engages imaginations in storytelling and if it doesn't go down well with an audience, it's more than likely because adults are expecting panto and encouraging their children to behave as if it's what they're getting. The most desolate sound in a Christmas theatre is adults sounding off inappropriate boos and hisses while young audience members look on perplexed.
I hope it doesn't happen to Unicorn's 1001 Nights. It didn't when I was there, in a school audience (usually the best kind – it's when the families move in at weekends and holidays the trouble's likely to start).
There's a touch of Islington about this show. The wife-lopping Sultan is no longer angry with women because of his first wife's affair but because she allegedly led an uprising against him. The real insurgent is his brother Zaman, annoyed at being sidelined in remote Samarkand. But Shahrukh Husain is mostly interested in stories, where they come from and the power they have to be mind-opening as well as mind-engaging.
The well-known stories become tales 'invented' by the audience from suggestions prompted by objects found in a search for new tales – a tried method in both theatre improvisation and children's games. They are beautifully acted out by shadow puppets (consultant: Anna Ingleby) and the main-stage action consists of Shehrazad showing a selfless concern for others and proving her love for a confidence-sapped Sultan. From the moment he was urged to execute his wife he's doubted his action, but brother Zaman keeps urging the ruler's need not to go back on his word.
Maggy Sherif is a strong Shehrazad, her vulnerability and strength making the character far more sympathetic than the thigh-slapping, spangled tights and plastic smiled celebs. we usually have inflicted on us with Christmas as a poor excuse. Louise Ann Wilson and Natasha Chivers provide spare and elegant visual splendour while the Asian instrumentation of Matthew Gray's score soaks the action in an atmospheric aural tapestry.
Dunyazad: Stephanie Blake
Zaman: Ashvin Kumar Joshi
Storyteller: Sharon McArdle
Wazir: Robin Samson
Sultan: Mo Sesay
Shehrazad: Maggy Sherif
Director: Emily Gray
Designer: Louise Ann Wilson
Lighting: Natasha Chivers
Music: Thomas Gray
Fight director: Paul Benzing
2001-12-16 10:35:34