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Production
Dubai
Media City
Choreography
Alissar
Caracalla
Director
Ivan Caracalla
Music
Rymsky
Korsakov
Maurice Ravel
Hooshang
Kamkar
Toufic
El- Bacha
Charbel
Rouhana
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Peacock Theatre
12 - 15 February
2003 |
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Two Thousand
and One Nights,
the latest production from Lebanon's
colourful dance theatre group Caracalla,
is a fascinating blend of East and West.
With elements of ballet as well as Eastern
movements along with singing and narration,
and Easternised versions of Rimsky-Korsakov
and Ravel mixed in with original music,
it is hard to define it as one thing.
But a many-splendoured thing it is.
As the
curtain rises we are greeted with a
luscious scene of thousands of colours,
silks and velvets, flowers and feathers,
glass and jewels. At the court of Shah'n'Shah
people from the four corners of the
earth have come to pay their respects.
The story
is quite clearly laid out in the slightly
pretentious programme but for those
who have not read it there is a narrator
who tells us what is going to happen
before each scene. Unfortunately his
accent was so strong that at times it
was very hard to understand what he
was saying, or more importantly, one
wondered if he had any idea himself
what he was saying!
The 'King
of kings' makes his son Sheyrayar the
legal heir to his throne, but Sheyrayar
does not want to rule alone and asks
his brother Shahzaman to join him. They
celebrate the new union with their wives
and family. Shortly after, Shahzaman
discovers that his wife is unfaithful
and from anger and to save his honour
he kills her and her lover. Full of
bitterness he goes to stay with his
brother only to find his brother's wife
also being unfaithful. He tells his
brother what he has seen and together
they hatch a plot to catch her. She
is caught in flagrante not only betraying
him but betraying him with a slave.
The brothers
now distrust women so terribly that
Sheyrayar makes a vow to marry every
evening and to kill his bride in the
morning, which he duly does. Until Sheherazade
presents herself as his next wife and
so bewitches him with her stories that
he cannot kill her. Night after night
she tells her stories until eventually
Sheyrayar finds love and happiness again
and the curse is lifted from the kingdom.
The group
scenes were very impressive but it all
became a bit too much of the same thing
after a while. In some ways the variety
was overwhelming but in others there
was very little; in general there were
so many people on stage and so many
colours and so much movement one didn't
know where to look. Which is a lovely
experience in itself for a little while
but soon becomes tiring. There is one
very sexy duet between Sheyrayar's wife
and her lover, but generally the production
could have done with many more duets
and solos.
However,
despite my wish for more intimate scenes,
I have to admit that the whole piece
is presented with such great spirit
and energy and the final scene was so
uplifting and joyous that I came away
feeling satisfied overall.
Fancine Brody |
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