About the Play:

The Arabian Nights is a full-length drama adapted for the stage by Mary Zimmerman from Powys Mather's translation of The Book of Thousand Nights and One Night. Passionate, playful, provocative storytelling, The Arabian Nights examines the fascinating tale of Scheherazade. In the wake of discovering his queen’s infidelity cruel King Shahryar has soured on all womankind. Then there’s no one left but clever Scheherazade. Can her 1001 cliffhanger stories keep her alive?

The Arabian Nights tells the tale of Scheherezade’s nightly telling of evocative tales. 1001 nights later the storyteller and listener are forever changed. A twelve-member cast enacts Scheherazade's tales of love, lust, comedy, and dreams. Scheherazade's cliffhanger stories prevent her husband, the cruel ruler Shahryar, from murdering her, and after 1,001 nights, Shahryar is cured of his madness, and Scheherazade returns to her family. This adaptation offers a wonderful blend of the lesser-known tales from Arabian Nights with the recurring theme of how the magic of storytelling holds the power to change people. The final scene brings the audience back to a modern day Baghdad with the wail of air raid sirens threatening the rich culture and history that are embodied by these tales.

What people say:

"If you want theatre at its most unpretentiously poetic, most fetchingly stylish, as humane as it is elegant, I commend to you The Arabian Nights." — New York Magazine

"There's a saying that nobody can read the entire Arabian Nights without dying of pleasure. In Zimmerman's production, that seems a possibility." — USA Today

"[A] feast for the eyes and ears." — Chicago Magazine

About the Playwright:

Mary Zimmerman is an American director and playwright who has earned national and international recognition in the form of numerous awards, including the Tony Award for Best Direction. She is an Artistic Associate of Goodman Theatre, a member of Lookingglass Theatre Company and a Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University.