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.”