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Arabian Nights
Playwright - Roland Schimmelpfennig
Translator - David Tushingham
Director - Gordon Anderson
Designer - Es Devlin
Lighting - Nigel Edwards
Company -
ATC
Venue - The Tron Glasgow 0141
552 4267
Dates - 25 - 27 April at 8pm then continues tour see
end of review for dates
Reviewer - Jo Jane
Cool, imaginative, poetic
Oh God, where do you start… Biography! Roland Schimmelpfennig is
a German playwright who has worked as a journalist, translator and dramaturg;
an eclectic mix that you feel in every drop of Arabian Night. It is cool,
imaginative, poetic and creates a sense of place that is rare for its
evocative power.
From the very first light to the rumbling soundtrack of the city it seems
there are two worlds co-existing on stage. Set in the sweltering heat
of an urban summer night where traffic and tower blocks seem to melt in
an exhaust fume haze, we could be anywhere from London to Istanbul. A
stage which can suddenly transform in the audience's imagination from
an aerial grid of roads and high rises to the inside of a poky flat accentuates
the feeling that we are working on more than one level. Indeed behind
all that we are seeing there is slowly seeping through something otherworldly,
the supposed magic of the Orient.
A masterful sense of space and movement allows the director to create
five different worlds for five different characters all co-existing in
the city. They meet and fall apart, tell separate stories of their past
whilst interacting in a very real and disturbing present. Running behind
it all, quite literally, is the story of water. Water is running down
the walls of their building, behind the skin of their flats it is haemorrhaging
away. In a literal sense this means that no one above floor seven can
have a shower and in a lateral sense it means that a river is running
between imagination and reality which can carry the characters either
way.
This play would be spoilt if it were described too much in a review. There
are things in it that should be seen and not read. The only down side
was a nervousness in the performance, which meant that the pace fell at
points and the real dramatic moments were sometimes lost, but over and
above this it felt like a show that would settle and mature beautifully.
© Jo Jane April 26 April 2002
EdinburghGuide Review of previous ATC show The
Boy Who Left Home toured 2000
Tour dates for Arabian Nights - ATC
10 April at 8pm Barnet The Bull 020 8449 0048
11 - 13 April at 7:30pm Sat 8pm Manchester Royal Exchange Theare 0161
833 9833
16 April at 7:45pm Frome Merlin Theatre 01373 465949
17 - 20 April at 7:45pm Plymouth Thatre Royal 01752 267222
23 April at 7:45 pm Newbury The Corm Exchange 01635 522733
25 - 27 April at 8pm Glasgow The Tron 0141 552 4267
29 April - 11 May at 7:30pm London Soho Theatre 020 7478 0100
14 May at 7:30pm Hereford The Courtyard 01432 359252
15 & 16 May at 8pm Nottingham Lakeside Arts Centre 0115 846 7777
17 May at 7:30pm Aberystwyth Arts Centre 01970 623232
22 May at 7:30pm Wakefield Arts Centre 01924 211311
25 May at 8pm Tunbridge Wells Trinity Atrs Centre 01892 678678
Tour Ends
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