Arabian Nights - Stratford upon Avon Tickets

At the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon, this adaptation of Arabian Nights will soon be staged under the direction of Dominic Cooke. A whole host of tales, pulled from the collection of stories that operates under the name One Thousand and One Nights for some, will be arriving onstage ready to take audiences on an enchanting ride. Though there are a range of stories, there are some common themes at work here, with King Shahrayer providing a link between the works, alongside his wife Queen Shakrazad.

People have been familiar with the stories contained within One Thousand and One Nights for centuries and Dominic Cooke has worked hard to bring this adaptation to the stage, including working alongside the original stories themselves in the British Library.

This means that stories such as Ali Baba and Sinbad the sailor are part of the tale, though they were not necessarily members of the original group of stories that people originally became familiar with. The stories have been added to and changed since their incarnation, but they arrive at the Courtyard Theatre with a wonderful framing device ready to set the tales in motion. It is wedding night in the palace occupied by King Shahrayar. However, the next morning the Queen Shahrazad will be given a similar fate to many newly weds that came before her and be put to death. However, she tries something that could save her life – indulging in the art of story telling.

This production has been seen all over the UK, though visitors to the Courtyard Theatre will be treated to a revamped version that will suit its new surroundings at the Stratford Upon Avon venue. It was initially conceived for the stage at the Young Vic, where it was housed back in 1998 before taking on a tour of the world, hitting venues at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as New York and Dublin.

Arabian Nights is a collection of folk tales that have inspired countless tales and spawned many incarnations over the years. Without this collection, which is thought to be of Persian descent with its own inspiration from Indian elements, movies such as Disney’s Aladdin would not exist, nor would the likes of Ali Baba or The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.

Arabian Nights is at the Courtyard Theatre from Saturday 5th December 2009 to Friday 30th January 2010.