Showing @ Royal Lyceum Theatre, until Sat 3 Sep @ 2:00pm

Suffused with perfume and poetry, director Tim Supple‘s production of 1001 Nights brings these bewitching and bawdy Arabic parables to life with colour, wit, intelligence and real understanding of the complex and contradictory culture from whence they sprang.

First thing’s first: you need to forget the childhood stories of The Arabian Nights; there’s no Sinbad, Aladdin or Ali Baba here – all later additions to the stories and whilst there are plenty of carpets on display none of them show any aeronautical tendencies. That’s not to say this show is without magic, there are Jinnis, transformations and enchantments at every turn but here they are used to attain love, fulfil desires or punish the unfaithful in a series of tales which – as they say on DVDs contain adult themes and scenes of a sexual nature.

Sex and passion drive the stories. Whether Kings, merchants or slaves the horrific, painful and occasionally hilarious pleasures and consequences of lust are played out in Arabic, French and English by Supple’s extremely talented cast of actors who come from across the Arab speaking world.

Given the explicit nature of much of the action you might be forgiven for thinking that these stories are in conflict with Muslim culture, particularly as it’s presented to us by western media. But actually Islam permeates each tale, in particular the idea that Allah, rather than Man, is the only one who can judge sin and meet out retribution. Acts of hubris, anger and arrogance are always punished.

The prime perpetrators of these venal sins are of course Men, whose abuse of power and jealous possessiveness inevitably leads to their downfall at the hands of the series of strong sassy and confident women who lie at the heart of these stories.

There’s some question as to whether adaptor, novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, has removed elements from the tales to bend them towards modern ideas of feminism. Regardless, it is the wisdom of Women, be it Shahrazad herself taming her King, Dalilah the Wily performing her elaborate con games or the five sisters who choose freedom over marriage who define events.

The live music adds an exhilirating atmosphere to the performances and both the simple but clever set design by Oum Keltoum Belkassi, with its ever-changing doorways, drop down props and use of cloth, as well as Zolaykha Sherzad’s mix of traditional and modern costumes, help to give the piece the requisite oriental (but never orientalist) feel.

The real victor of this production is the art and power of storytelling which is demonstrated with a nimble balance of grace and raw energy, bringing to life these stories which have influenced writers, historians, folklorists and artists for centuries – yet still remain mysterious.

That Alf layla wa-layla (The 1001 Nights) lie behind everything from fairy tales to panto and from ballet to dirty jokes but are almost unknown in their original form by most in the Arab world. Sanitised into children’s stories in the west creates one of the great tragedies of literature and this beautiful and erotic production goes a long way to redress this in spellbinding fashion.