Timeless plays 1001 Nights commences season at UJ Arts & Culture
By CityLife Arts Writer
The cast is enticing and the story itself calls for attention from theatre lovers, making this a tempting show that nobody should miss for flimsy reasons. The action is at UJ Arts Centre, where 1001 Nights starts its season on Monday, October 23, 2023.
And to do justice to this timeless work, Jade Bowers, UJ Arts and Culture’s resident director has convened a cast of some of the best storytellers in the industry such as Dolly Louw, Musanete Sakupwanya, Ilse Klink, Sivuyise Kibido, Marcus Mabusela, and Katlego Nche. Matthew MacFarlane’s evocative compositions and Daniel Buckland’s artful choreography enrich the experience, with students from UJ Arts Academy adding their talents to the ensemble. UJ FADA Industrial Design students craft the stage, while UJ FADA Fashion Design students bring the costumes to life. And the producers are excited about the show.
“In October, UJ Arts & Culture a division of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA) proudly presents 1001 Nights, a captivating reinterpretation of timeless tales by playwright Ismail Mohamed. Under the adept direction of UJ Arts & Culture’s Resident Director Jade Bowers, this enchanting production promises to transport you into a world where magic and storytelling intertwine.
Experience the enchanting world of 1001 Nights at the UJ Arts Centre from 23 to 28 October 2023. Tickets, priced at R80 for registered students and R100 for general admission, are available on Plankton.
1001 Nights promises to transport you into a realm of theatrical play and enchanting storytelling. Set against the backdrop of Shahrayar’s palace, where the King has vowed to behead his brides, it follows Queen Scheherazade’s ingenious plan to captivate him with tales, facing death each dawn. Queen Scheherazade weaves her tales to captivate the heart of her king, highlighting the enduring magic of narrative and its ability to transport us to distant lands and cultures,” the producers state in a media release.
Through these stories, we explore themes of love, adventure, and the resilience of the human spirit, reminding us of the universal nature of human experience. Resonating with a South African tradition, the work is a celebration of the power of storytelling.
1001 Nights goes beyond its captivating narratives to explore deeper themes of diversity, transformation, and cultural tolerance. 1001 Nights is a traditional set of tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It has a long history, collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central and South Asia, and North Africa.
Some tales trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Persian, and Mesopotamian literature. Many tales were originally folk stories from the Abbasid and Mamluk eras, while others, especially the frame story, are most likely drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hezār Afsān which in turn relied partly on Indian elements. The production aims to spark conversations about history, religion, and the shared human experience, ultimately promoting understanding and unity among communities.
“The chance to experiment with our African tradition – storytelling – to contribute to societal transformation and impact withing the context of these rich narratives really excited me,” says Resident Director of UJ Arts & Culture, Jade Bowers.
“Representation matters, this production is an exploration of our histories and cultures through storytelling. Storytelling has run through our veins for centuries- and our blood flows from the East, from the North and from the West. This production is, hopefully, one small insight into the stories of our ancestors,” she emphasises.
A 1001 Nights follows in the footsteps of several productions that have been produced alongside the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture’s Interdisciplinary Theatre Programme, which challenges second-year students across the faculty to design and build models for different aspects of the production.
Launched by the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), Prof Federico Freschi in 2017, this award-winning programme facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration and learning and has since inception benefitted more than 1300 students who have participated in the programme.
Reza de Wet’s African Gothic was produced for the pilot of the FADA programme followed by Franz Kafka’s iconic Metamorphosis that won the Naledi Theatre Award for Best Set Design in 2019. Let the Right One In adapted from best-selling Swedish novel and award-winning film by John Ajvide Lindqvist and adapted for stage by Jack Thorne, was produced the following year before the pandemic resulted in a two-year hiatus of the programme and we are thrilled to have been able to resuscitate it with the presentation of Hlakanyana in 2022 that went on to win eight Naledi Theatre Awards.