Erotic-Comic Tales from the Arabian Nights
Erotic-Comic Tales from the Arabian Nights preserves the narrative structure of the original One Thousand and One Nights and, like the literary source, develops all stories from the frame narrative of Shahriyar and Scheherazade:
- The Story of the Hunchback
- Zain el-Asnam and the King of the Spirits
- The Story of the Woman Who Gave Alms to the Poor
- The Three Wishes
- The Son of the Grand Vizier and the Wife of the Bath-keeper
- The Story of the Two Sisters Who Envied Their Youngest Sister
- The Story of Abu Hasan, the Courtesan, and the Owner of the House of Pleasure
To tell a story is perhaps the purest form of theatre. Requiring no external effects, costumes or set design, it enters the imagination directly, awakening images, fantasy, dreams.
Through word, gesture, voice and movement alone, it creates a world of imagination and makes it real.
The production commands attention at once through the intelligence, the fantasy and the originality of a directorial vision that is thoroughly delightful in its reinvention of improvisational theatre. The evocations of hyperbolic sexual exploits, all rendered in mime, are hilarious, possessed of a radiant, sun-drenched comedy.
IL SIPARIO, Claudio Facchinelli
Total theatre…
Aargauer Volksblatt
…like Dario Fo at his best…
Tagesanzeiger, Zurich
What more could one ask of theatre?
Heidenheimer Neue Presse
Wonderful total theatre!
Berliner Zeitung
The audience was thrilled by the firework of astonishing narratives and fascinating gestures, thanking the performers with generous applause for their magnificent artistry.
Frankfurter Neue Presse
The two delivered a consummate display of virtuoso body language, facial expression and meticulous command of the spoken word. They wove an extraordinary tapestry of tales. Pure theatrical artistry – two sorcerers of the stage.
Freie Presse, Germany
Sultans, strange figures, spirits, heroes, harems, black eunuchs and wise animals appear, become reality, take us by the hand and lead us into the fantastic world of the Arabian Nights.
The stories told in the production were prepared for the theatre by the Markus Zohner Arts Company and specially adapted for the style and manner of the two performers.
The spirit of the stories comes alive, and the characters in their often fantastic worlds are reborn.
The splendour, the colours and the joie de vivre of their world, their abundance of humour, comedy and Sufi wisdom make the Arabian Nights one of the most sensuous and multicoloured works in the cultural history of humankind.
Eroticism and comedy permeate this tapestry of images, scents, fears, dreams and hope – subtle keys to the heart of anyone who lets themselves be enchanted by the thousand and one rays of the night.
To host Erotic-Comic Tales at your theatre, festival or cultural venue, contact the production.