Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights is a collection of six middle eastern folk tales which was shown tonight at Kingsley Community Hall.  Following on from their production of Fantastic Mr Fox, Kingsley Players were delighted the share their short stories with us, told through their youth department.

This play had a good concept.  It opened with a bedtime story theme which was carried the whole way through the play.  The costumes and soft lighting reflected this theme and it was clear to the audience what the directors’ intention was.  Arabian Nights was directed by Jake Powell who had some creative and original ideas.  I like watching theatre which pushes the boundaries and is different to the norm and this play did just that.  Set in a thrust style, with audience on three sides, gave it a more personal feel and the audience were never too far away from the action.  This personal feel also reflected the bedtime story concept.   The set was very minimal but apt.  There was a small stage with a bed, two toy boxes, (which were used brilliantly throughout) and a wardrobe, which acted like a time machine to the stories that were being told by the main cast.  The general blocking throughout this piece was very good.  It always had the audience in mind and even when some characters were facing a different direction, there were other characters facing yours.  It was clear that a lot of thought had gone into direction and it was very much noticed and appreciated.  Well done.

The set design and build were completed by Vic Woodhams (and team).  I liked the use of the wardrobe.  It was a good concept and used well throughout this play.  It was clear what the wardrobe was for and it worked well.  At the beginning of the play, during the Ali Baba story, the jewelled necklaces that were hanging on the doors, rattled very loudly every time the doors were opened.  This was a little distracting for the audience to hear the dialogue.  The toy boxes were also a good concept and they were used very effectively throughout.  They contained all of the relevant props and the young actors were very clear which box to open and which prop to get out – this was obviously very well-rehearsed.

The lighting and sound were by Kenton Barker, Mike Vickers and Lol Lynch.  The lighting was very basic with a general white wash.  However, this was in line with the bedtime story theme.  There were a few lights with coloured gels and they were used in relevant parts of the story.  The sound was mostly appropriate.  At times, the sound was a little loud when the main character started a new story.  Because of this, we lost some lines of dialogue.  During all of the stories, we had Arabian music but at times, modern day music was added.  This was a little confusing to me.  I’m not convinced this choice worked.

There are far too many cast for me to mention and it would be very unfair of me to mention individual names.  Some of the cast were better than others.  Some cast had very lazy diction and articulation and the audience lost lots of dialogue.  This hindered the storytelling.  A lot of the cast were talking and whispering backstage.  Someone backstage was even eating a packet of crisps very loudly!  This was very off-putting for me, and the audience members around me, who were distracted from the action.  At the end of the show, lots of the youth cast were running around amongst the audience as it was the last night.  I feel that theatre etiquette should be applied here, as a bit of a teaching point, which is why I am mentioning it in my review so that the backstage noise and general etiquette doesn’t distract from future performances.  That said, there were a lot of positives from this youth cast.  All of the cast had lots of energy onstage and the pace of the play was there.  There were a few great performances and the storytelling, from a few, was very good.  Most of the cast had a lot of dialogue – more than some adult productions that I have seen recently.  This youth cast deserve a huge round of applause, not only for remembering such a vast script, but for their enthusiasm and energy.  It was clear that they were very pleased with their performance and the audience were very pleased in watching them. 

I wish Kingsley Players the very best of luck for their next production: A Bunch of Amateurs by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, in May 2018.

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