1001 Nights around the Fire Ring

Sara Barker announces an upcoming fireside reading of stories from The 1001 Nights, this Saturday October 25 in Arlington, Virginia. She has also successfully funded (via kickstarter) a larger upcoming project on the Nights (info below).

upcoming reading - 

   

1001 Nights around the Fire Ring!

WSC Avant Bard

Saturday, October 25, 2014 from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)

Arlington, VA

Many of us tell stories to understand our lives. Shahrazad tells them to save hers...

One Thousand and One Nights at the Lubber Run Fire Ring

Join WSC Avant Bard Theatre at 7:30 pm on Saturday, October 25 at Lubber Run’s Fire Ring for a theatrical reading of selections from One Thousand and One Nights,*adapted for the stage by Hanan al-Shaykh and Tim Supple, and directed by WSC Avant Bard company member Lynn Sharp Spears, who brought her thrilling rendition of Beowulf to the Lubber Run Fire Ring last year!

Come discover the extraordinary tales that kept Shahrazad alive for 1001 nights! The tales will be enlivened by musical accompaniment in this special staged reading under the stars; picnic baskets and blankets are strongly encouraged.

Admission is free but please RSVP.

WSC Avant Bard is proud to produce One Thousand and One Nights as part of the Gaurav Gopalan FREE Reading Series. Visit http://wscavantbard.org/ to help support WSC Avant Bard.

*Parental Advisory: mature themes and content

WSC Avant Bard Theatre - 1001 Nights

info from the kickstarter site - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1843894291/1001-nights-help-bring-this-fascinating-new-play-t
 

WSC Avant Bard is proud to produce One Thousand and One Nights as part of the Gaurav Gopalan FREE Reading Series. Visit http://wscavantbard.org/ to help support WSC Avant Bard.

*Parental Advisory: mature themes and content

Help WSC Avant Bard bring to life the US premiere of a theatrical retelling of 1001 Nights, adapted by Hanan al Shaykh & Tim Supple!

1001 Nights Performers:

Bette Cassatte

Maggie Clifton

Christian Gibbs

Eryn Gleason

Sha Golanski

Theodore Hadjimichael

Stephen Krzyzanowski

Brooke Mulkins

Autumn Seavey Hicks

Gillian Shelly

Gabriel Swee

Annette Wasno

Chuck Young

Halah Zenhom

1001 Nights Musicians:

Manko Eponymous

Erik Sharar

Jason Wilson

Three members of WSC Avant Bard -- a theatre company that produces shows in and around Washington, DC -- have a dream of bringing a magical piece of theatre to the US. Director Lynn Sharp Spears, Stage Manager Maggie Clifton, and Actor Sara Barker discovered the existence of a new stage version of One Thousand and One Nights while searching for the next play to stage around the Lubber Run Park Fire Ring - a twice yearly tradition for the company. Lynn had great success directing a staged reading of Beowulf around the fire ring and they were looking for something similarly epic. Sara thought that One Thousand and One Nights would make for a splendid staged reading around the fire ring and was thrilled to discover that as recent as 2011 the stories from One Thousand and One Nights had been freshly adapted by celebrated Lebanese author Hanan al Shaykh and dramatized for the stage by British director Tim Supple. The production had its European premiere at the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival. WSC Avant Bard believes its high time this magical play have its US premiere! The first step is producing a staged reading, so the three WSC Avant Bard members are raising funds to provide the actors and musicians involved a small stipend for their talent and time.

Here are a few words about the new adaptation from Tim Supple: "We want to give audiences in the theatre an experience of the One Thousand and One Nights as they are in the original Arabic texts, before they were discovered and translated by the West; and before they were exoticized and adapted for children. When you read the Arabic originals, you find stories that are erotic and brutal; that are about destiny, love, marriage, and power; about the fundamental processes of social existence. These stories are remarkable and surprising; and complex and important."

Hanan Al-Shaykh - One Thousand and One Nights: A Retelling

I mentioned Al-Shaykh's UK version of this book in 2011, but apparently her collection of Nights stories has also been recently released in the USA, spurring the following reflection.

I've excerpted bits from an Atlantic review of her book below.  Read the whole thing at - http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/06/the-humanist-message-hidden-amid-the-violence-of-i-one-thousand-and-one-nights-i/277210/

The review/article/musing on Al-Shaykh's work by author Joe Fassler alleges a humanist message discovered in the Nights beneath its violence.  Though what that humanism is remains unclear after reading the article.  Hanan Al-Shaykh's books are great though, and you should go read all of them.

Al-Shaykh has published, here in her Nights, 19 stories culled from three Arabic manuscripts that she found interesting, after reading all three manuscripts in their entirety, in Arabic.

Don't know if I agree with the following, actually I don't, but then again, anything goes with the Nights:

"Though the Arabian Nights features countless characters and voices, we must read each one as partially channeled by Shahrazad, her plea for reason and mercy. Through all these stories, she is working on him. Educating him. Maybe she is brainwashing him. These stories, in fact, slowly teach him to give up his lust for blood and his blanket condemnation of women.

Look closely: She chooses stories that mirror her predicament. All the characters are pleading for life, in a way. She does this intelligently, of course, camouflaging with little stories here and there on different topics. But the main line is you cease to be a human being if you steep yourself in brutality and killing. That adultery--like many human failings--happens for reasons we can sympathize with. And so one cannot be a tyrant. One must listen carefully to others, and be just. Every story is her asking for her life, asking for the killer to stop."

----------------

"We don't know much about their relationship--if she was attracted to him, if she was happy with him in bed, if she was merely a victim of his violence. But you can feel in the stories a gradual change. At the beginning they are very brutal and dark, but they show us that adultery usually happens for a reason and that jealousy and violence typically bring misery to all concerned. With time, though, they become more about social values, adventures, they were less dark than when she started, and concern higher questions. Who are we human beings? What do we do in life? What is our aim of living? How do we become better citizens? And the answer, so often, comes through telling important stories and listening closely to what others have learned."



 

The Thousand and One Nights - Hanan Al Shaykh & Tim Supple

Yes, it's true.  Another version of the Nights joins us this year.  This one was recently published in the UK and written by Hanan Al Shaykh, and a play version is available in the US by both Al Shaykh and Tim Supple. I'm sure you can get the UK version somehow in the US as well though.

Many thanks to Irfan and JC for passing this info along.

From 1001 Nights

From 1001 Nights

Hanan Al Shaykh is the author of the version of the Nights that Luminato was based on, Tim Supple directed the play.  I believe it is now touring, but I'm not exactly sure.

From what I've read Al Shaykh's version is quite risque, giving voice to what was a vital part of the original manuscript, and was well received.

I'll post some reviews as I collect them.  It will be interesting to see her version, I've read a couple of her books and they are recommended if you are interested in feminism, the Middle East, and contemporary viewpoints from that region via Al Shaykh's particular vision, not to mention being good reads that stand on their own and will draw you in you regardless of your own interests.  Here's her wikipedia page:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanan_al-Shaykh

You can read the beginning of the frame story at the publisher's website here:  http://www.bloomsbury.com/One-Thousand-and-One-Nights/Hanan-Al-Shaykh/books/details/9781408826041

I think it's a really well done version from the excerpt, very funny, I'm looking forward to getting a copy.

Here's a video of author Tahmina Anam (thanks Irfan!) talking about the Nights and Al Shaykh's version, among other things: