Arabian Nights

This was the last project of the year and very much a student collaboration according to the Director Ashley Richey, where they were able to input all the skills they had learnt over the past couple of years. And I have to say, this was certainly full of very inventive and clever ideas.

As the story by Dominic Cooke goes this was far from the sanitised Arabian Nights I read as a child. Apparently, the Victorians altered a lot of the stories, so they were suitable for children and ‘polite society.’ And having seen this version I’m not surprised! After being betrayed by his wife, the Sultan (or King as he is referred to here) has her beheaded. From then on he takes a bride a day but has each of them beheaded the following morning to prevent further betrayal. However one young woman, Shahrazed, who has a gift for storytelling and against all advice deliberately seeks to marry the King and become Queen, believing her stories are so captivating the King will spare her,  Brave strategy, which leads to her telling the tales of Ali Baba and Forty Thieves, The story of The Little Beggar, The Story of Sinbad The Sailor, How Anu Hassan Broke Wind, The Wife who Wouldn’t Eat, The Envious Sisters and The Story Without Ending, which cleverly turns out to be the story of The King and Shahrazad themselves. Often Shahrazed would introduce the story and then the characters themselves would go on to narrate it, sometimes using puppets to portray themselves.

The very striking set by Finlay Hannam taking up the rear wall was instantly recognisable as classic Middle Eastern architecture with the entrance to a large domed Palace in striking yellow and blue with three open curved top arches as entrances and exits. To stage left was a plush carpeted area where the King sat to listen to the stories. There were steps down to the floor of the auditorium upon which most of the action took place. To mark the movement of characters in the stories moving from location to location, large wheeled bare wooden doorframes were pushed across the stage by the cast through which the characters passed, which worked perfectly. And various ornately decorated boxes were also strategically placed where needed for the action. The movement of all scenery and props was instantaneous and very slickly done.

The props were absolutely magnificent, and all make by the student team of Alex Home, Charlotte Firkins, Finlay Hannan, Carrie Moulton, Lily Drake Hammond, Simon Barker and Alex Cooper-March. Amongst many we had flying paper or plastic birds, The legs of a horse, Horses heads, a large puppet dog and best of all some 3D printed puppets, which often then acted out the story being told. Very clever indeed. The most striking set was Ali Baba entering The Secret Cave with the words ‘Open Sesame,’ and three ornately decorated purple chests were pushed on from the front and the two wings. On being opened revealing a rich array of coloured shiny jewellery. Visually spectacular.

Costumes by Ellis Coleman, Daniela Tiscenko and Amari-Rowyn Johnson Cudjoe were simply an array of middle eastern dress revealing and appropriately dressed everybody from royalty to street vendor and really gave a flavour of an Arabian street. A feast for the eyes.

The Choreography by Claudia Calardo, Utsharja Bhandari, Lexi Falconer, Precious Nwalema and Alex Antoniou was delightful and very much of Eastern Bollywood origin, very upbeat and with this large cast very well coordinated. Interspersed throughout the script its impact was huge and made you sit up every time it started. It certainly made the action zip along.

With thirty named roles I apologies, but I won’t be reviewing every actor as is my usual practice.

Utsharja Bhandari in the lead role of Shahrazed was as the play demands an excellent storyteller with clear crisp delivery and you hung on her every word. Ably supported by Sarah Ramzan as her younger sister, Harouna. Theo Maxim Godden is a busy man, having seen him in the lead in A Chorus Line a mere three weeks ago here he was in the lead as Shahrayar/King in Arabian Nights, and doing a very good job of it too in this authoritarian part. He certainly has the talent, and I wish him all the success at LAMDA. Ellis Coleman was the somewhat troubled Vizier, which he put across very well. Charlie Dennis was a very good Ali Baba, and I loved Riley Hobday as the completely demented beggar, who it turned out was impossible to kill. Precious Nwalema nearly made me jump out of my seat when she came on with her band of Dervishes. She also made a pretty good Chief of Police. And the one person they all tried to avoid was Ryan Curtis with his axe as the Headsman.

But well done also to Imogen Harper, Kallum Husband, Hollie Cardwell, Grace Deasy, Lilly Eaton, Amy Rogers, Safie Akhtemova, Anthony Hubball, Alex Antoniou, Daniela Tiscenko, Lexi Falconer, Enzo Wragg, Amari-Rowyn Johnson Cudjoe, Brady Docherty, Megan Smith Rae Joseph, Madison Jarvis, Zoe Guth, Jayden Philpott-Kumari, Maddison Price, Izzy Hastings, Preston Sawyer and Maile Cahill-Ritter, who played multiple parts between them

Overall, the acting was excellent, very engaging and passionate, but some of the dialogue was a little garbled at times which momentarily made following the plot difficult. The best piece of advice I was ever given was that pace is nothing to do with delivery, its all to do with picking up your cues, so please slow down the delivery but be on it when your cue comes. 

So, congratulations to Director Ashley Richey, her cast and crew, a thoroughly enjoyable evenings entertainment and I wish all those leaving the college every success in their future careers.

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