A cavalcade of phantasies – narrated, played and mimed

The King of Samarkand returns from his journey sooner as expected and catches his wife entertaining a slave in her bed. He arranges for her execution and then marries a virgin every evening, who is promptly beheaded on the next morning. Sadness spreads across the country and Scheherazade, the daughter of the king’s grand vizier, offers herself as a sacrificial lamb to change the king’s mind. She tells the king a tale but leaves it unfinished come daylight. The king delays Scheherazade’s execution out of curiosity at the tale’s ending. She then carries on with her tale during the next night and right away starts with her next story …

The »Thousand and one nights« collection of over three hundred stories was handed down by word-of-mouth and its main tale originated in India. The highly iridescent Oriental fables and the poetic, flowery language remind one rather of great Hollywood movies than modern theatre.

That is the reason why the stage version of the Swiss Markus Zohner theatre company amazes much, because it dares in our age of finely honed stage scenery and technical stagecraft to consider that what is theatre’s basis substance, namely the linguistic competence of the actors and the fantasy of the audience. That is why in 1994 an enchanting evening full of humour, eroticism, wisdom and joie de vivre was created, whose new version now is premiered during the euro-scene Leipzig.

Markus Zohner was born in Germany and worked in Switzerland as an actor and director, not only for his own company which he established ten years ago, but also for other theatres. He also conducts masterchip courses for professional actors. Patrizia Barbuiani is Italian and a Zohner Company member of many years standing. She moderates at the Swiss TSI television, conducts theatre courses and writes stories, scripts and novels. Showing its various productions and making guest appearances throughout Europe, the company also played overseas, such as in Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Paraguay.