Arabian Nights to entertain Dubai residents

The new stage version had won the Children's Choice Award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year.

A scene from Arabian Nights at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015. Photo by Rachael Lowndes

An award-winning new stage version of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights arrives in Dubai this weekend.

The show, from the United Kingdom’s Story Pocket Theatre, won the Children’s Choice Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year. It stays true to the structure of the original version, beginning with Scheherazade spinning a tale for her new husband Sultan Shahryar. Her stories include Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Fisherman and the Jinni, and The Little Beggar.

Three actors – Yasmin Goodwin, Luke Pitman and William Forde – will juggle more than 50 characters with split- second costume changes.

“The set is very simple and our actors are dressed in white,” says producer Alison Beattie. “We have little add-ons, such as hats, for a splash of colour.”

The idea, says Adam Forde, one of the directors, is to provide an alternative to the Disney-style versions of the tales.

“Children aren’t given the respect they deserve sometimes,” he says. “We also want to entertain parents and the older children. So we don’t dumb it down.”

• One Thousand and One ­Arabian Nights is at Ductac from Thursday until Saturday, with shows at 11am and 3pm daily.Tickets from Dh120, ­available at www.ductac.org