by Jason Grote

New York University | Gallatin School | 2010

An Orientalist fantasia and post-­modern exploration of The Arabian Nights’ complex genealogy investigating the roots and history of Orientalisim and attendant cultural appropriation of stories.

The cuckolded King Shahriyar is marrying a new bride every night and beheading her the next morning. As unrest spreads in the Sultanate, his vizier's daughter Scheherazade hatches a plan: she will offer herself as a bride and seduce the king with stories that leave him hanging on every word. She weaves such tales as "Sinbad the Sailor" and "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp" with interventions from Borges, Flaubert, and Alan and Dahna -- an American Jewish man and a Palestinian woman who have fallen in love in millennial New York City. Shahriyar becomes Alan and Scheherazade becomes Dahna as the worlds mingle and inform one another. 
 

Cast | Amir Darvish | William Franke | Sheila Bandyopadhyay | Beth Ann Pollack | Ryan Weldon | Willie Almack