Vivid ‘Arabian Nights’ at UCI
TOM TITUS
It’s refreshing indeed to hear stories emanating from Baghdad of the
playful, wistful, romantic and moral variety -- even if we’re talking
about medieval Baghdad, when that city lay at the heart of the
Persian Empire.
Such tales are being spun at UC Irvine, where Mary Zimmerman’s
“Arabian Nights,” a spellbinding adaptation of the classic “Thousand
and One Nights,” weaves its own special enchantment. Director Annie
Loui has transformed the university’s Studio Theater into a palace of
pleasure, where one can rest on comfortable pillows (if one wishes)
to see these legendary stories reenacted.
Most of us are at least vaguely familiar with the story of
Scheherezade, the latest of the ancient king’s candidates for
marriage to enter the palace that’s an earlier-day roach motel, where
the brides check in, but they don’t check out. Scheherezade vows to
alter that ending, spinning tales for the monarch that somehow arrive
at the cliffhanger just as dawn breaks -- giving the king no choice
but to postpone her execution until he’s heard the ending.
This goes on -- and on and on -- for the requisite 1,001 nights,
and the stories become more deeply involving until the king himself
is recruited to play one out, enacting a commoner who passes himself
off as a caliph. This is the most engrossing of the many tales, and
the most skillfully presented. Other stories range from themes of
tragic love to comic flatulence.
As Scheherezade, classic beauty Kyra Zagorsky weaves her anecdotes
with the skill of a sorceress, a master puppeteer guiding the
formidable UCI ensemble through one playlet after another. Zagorsky
also is credited as belly dance consultant, assisting director Loui’s
choreographic contributions.
The stern king is powerfully enacted by the imposing Patrick
Sabongui, who reveals his character’s humanity when recruited as a
story player. Sean Tarrant is equally impressive as the true caliph
in this episode, as well as others in which he commands attention.
Ensemble members excel at instant and varied characterizations.
Jake Dogias and Rebecca Tourino are featured in an early story of a
reticent suitor encountering his perfect love, while Justin Lujan
excels as a jester whose wife (Lisa Schwartz) entertains a litany of
suitors while he’s away.
Particularly effective are Marina Morrow as a town butcher (one of
Schwartz’s companions) and a cross-dressing wise “man” and Tourino
again as a super- educated woman who puts the town’s learned elders
to shame.
Others contributing to the impressive ensemble are Allison Case,
Becky Potter, Laura A. Simms, Sean Spann, Erwin Tuazon and Jason
Vande Brake. Musician John Bilezikjian offers some haunting tunes
from his “oud,” an ancient stringed instrument.
Atmospherically, the Studio Theater is enriched by the Casbah-like
setting by Soo Lee, the eye-catching period costumes of Kathryn
Wilson and the soft, mood-enhancing lighting of Sasha A. Venola.
Director Loui admonishes her audiences to “become a little wiser,
a little more relaxed and a little more willing to identify with
neighbors, who somehow seem to be a lot like us.” This mission is
accomplished splendidly in “Arabian Nights.”
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