Arabian+Nights+Paper

Hillary Morgan Positive things about the production: 1. The set was very versatile. With a minimum amount of set pieces, the actors were able to convey the several stories in the play. The black backdrop lent itself to the sometimes somber tone of //Arabian Nights//. One piece in particular had steps that could be changed depending on the story being acted out. Though the Cellar Theater was completely black, there were a few ornate pillows on the floor, the only colors on the stage, and they were kept in the corners. Though the darkness created the overall dark atmosphere and the sinister tones of the play, the pillows were sat on when Scheherezade was telling her stories. The characters were sitting on the bright parts of the stage, significant of their relaxation and happiness. 2. The lighting was always appropriate. At one point, Scheherezade says that the night went dark, and the lights went out. The lights were also indicative of the time of day, as when dawn comes and it appears brighter or when it’s nighttime and there is a blue overcast. Whenever Shahryar was about to kill Scheherezade, the lights became startlingly bright and harsh. 3. Using people as representations of other things was ingenious. At different points in the play, a few of the actors assumed the shape of a camel. One was the head and one was the rear, but both reacted as if they were one whole. In the story of the night Harun al-Rashid met himself upon the water, three actors stood, arms out, and acted as if they were a boat rocking in the harbor, eventually transporting characters across the stage. Walls and structures were also made by the actors. All of this served as a substitution for props that would have had to have been created, moved around throughout the play, and stored later. It also helped to keep as many of the actors as possible involved throughout the performance. 4. The costumes were interesting and representative. The men wore head wraps and the women wore veils and harem pants, bringing the culture to the story. There were also slight costume changes when the actors assumed different roles. Most importantly, Scheherezade’s costume changed from red in the first act to white in the second act, indicating the change from the seduction of Shahryar with her stories to the morality of her stories. 5. The shroud was by far the most helpful thing about the production. It helped the audience become less confused by indicating who was telling the story, which would have been difficult otherwise. Negative things about the production: 1. The set looked a bit cheap and thrown together at the last minute. The black paint was not uniform, and it was distracting. The only color came from the pillows, but they were being sat on most of the time and were a weird contrast sometimes. The black also made the entire play seem darker, even the parts that were supposed to be funny.

2. The action was spread across the entire stage. There would be one actor reacting to the story, another actor telling the story, and another one actually portraying it. It felt like I was trying to pay attention to a three-ring circus at some points, especially at the end with the Confusion of Stories. At the beginning, Shahryar said a chant while Scheherezade spoke to her father. This was incredibly distracting and made me feel anxious (and annoyed because I could not hear what either of them were saying—Shahryar drowned out Scheherezade, but was still mumbling). It seemed like something overly violent was about to happen, but nothing did. This added to the suspense element, but it seemed like a promise that was not delivered. 3. Initially, the characters seemed like they were overacting. The actress who played Scheherezade in particular seemed to always be speaking to the audience rather than to Shahryar, and never quite seemed to be totally natural. The actor portraying Shahryar took the lovey-dovey emotion too far in the second act, completely abandoning any trace of his former murderous self which was integral to his character. I was confused by how old Scheherezade’s sister was supposed to be, because at times she acted like a small child, but she was supposed to marry Shahryar once her sister had married him and been killed. It also seemed like some of the actors forgot their lines and had to scramble to remember them, which provided weak characterization. 4. The amount of people on the stage and where they were placed throughout was distracting. None of them left the stage, instead moving from one side to the other or becoming a part of the scene for a brief moment. The flittering, in-and-out action of the actors was confusing, but if they had stayed in one spot until they were needed it might have been less so. 5. The end of the play did not work at all. It was incredibly weird. “The nights in Baghdad were whiter than the days,” was said over and over, and while at first it seemed poignant, eventually I had to hold myself back from laughing at how ridiculous it was. It lasted about a minute too long, and the fact that all of the actors said the line as emotionlessly as possible made me forget that it was supposed to be an uplifting story.