Spencer Theatre

Jan. 30-Feb. 22, 2009

Written by Mary Zimmerman
Directed by Mary Zimmerman

A Co-Production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

From the Creator of the Smash Hit Metamorphoses

From the creator of the Broadway and Kansas City smash Metamorphoses comes this glorious and extraordinary retelling of one of the greatest epics of world literature. Zimmerman’s stunning theatrical event is a series of stories brilliantly woven by the beautiful princess Scheherezade — one story a night, for 1001 nights, to save her own life. As long as she can keep the king entertained with her magical stories of beauty, honor, love, and the search for wisdom, he will spare her.  With Zimmerman’s famed fusion of gorgeous music, inventive staging, and highly theatrical storytelling, The Arabian Nights gives us an exhilarating view of the lush, rich legacy of the place we now know as Iraq. Creator/director Mary Zimmerman is the recipient of a 1998 MacArthur ”Genius” Grant, the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director and ten Joseph Jefferson Awards. "If you want theatre at its most unpretentiously poetic, most fetchingly stylish, as humane as it is elegant, I commend to you The Arabian Nights." --New York Magazine

The Buzz

“…this ingenious entertainment travels to co-producers Kansas City Rep and Chicago's Looking glass Theater Company's stages after Berkeley Rep; other nonprofits would be wise to keep it on the road indefinitely.”—Variety

“If you want theatre at its most unpretentiously poetic, most fetchingly stylish, as humane as it is elegant, I commend to you The Arabian Nights. [It] sails as smoothly and magically as the caliph’s boat on the moonlit waves of the Tigris.”— New York Magazine

“The fables delight and instruct while steaming toward an unsettling finish.”—Washington Post

“[A] feast for the eyes and ears.”—Chicago Magazine

“Zimmerman could stage the Chicago phone book and have it be fascinating.”—USA Today