The Arabian Nights: Lily Burgess's 'Arabian Nights'

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Arabian Nights By Lily Burgess – Year 9 Drama Kitab alf laylah wa-laylah (One Thousand and One Nights) is a collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales written in Arabic during the ‘Islamic Golden Age’ In English, the Tales are known as the ‘Arabian Nights’. The common structure of the play is the primary story of the ruler Shahryar, meaning ‘King” in Persian and his wife Scheherazade and the ‘tales/stories’ that she tells are structured around this story. In short, all the stories stem from Persian King and his new bride. Shahryar is shocked by his own first wife’s infidelity and consequently he has had her executed. Shahryar, then forms the view that all women are not to be trusted and fuelled by his grief and bitterness begins to marry a succession of virgins, which he has executed the next morning, before the new wife can dishonour him. Eventually, the ‘vizier’ who is charged with finding Shahryar with a new wife is unable to find anymore virgins for the King to marry. Scheherazade, the vizier’s daughter, offers herself as the next bride in an attempt to stop the slaughter of Bagdad’s young women and the execution of her own mother, who suffers the same fate, if she does not find the King a bride. Scheherazade, has a plan, and asks her sister, to stay each night with her and the King. Every night Scheherazade tells a story to the King. The King is curious about how the story ends, and each morning he postpones the execution, so that Scheherazade can finish the story. Over time, he begins to feel real love and trust for his wife. Over the next 1001 nights she tells a new story. Some stories are framed within other tales, while others begin and end on their own. Primarily the play is in prose, although verse... ... middle of paper ... ...s is the use of the ‘story within the story. Dramatic Visualization, which is representing an object or character with descriptive detail, gestures and dialogue in such a way to provide the audience with a visual real or imagined. Fate and Destiny, is a common theme in Arabian Nights. That is destiny manifests itself through an anomaly and then another, so that a chain of events and destiny is generated. Foreshadowing is the use of repeated references to some character or object, which appears insignificant at first and then, is the bases for the destiny of the tale. Most notable is the use of Arabic poetry; the use of pleading, beseeching and praising towards the powerful is most significant in Arabian Nights. ARABIAN NIGHTS enthralled me and the rest of the audience with its rich suspense, romance and humour. Well done Ravenswood Drama Department March 2014!!!

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