Sheherezade - Synopsis
Touring in 2004/2005
Act.1
Sultan Shahryar discovers his wife having an affair with one of his slaves.
The two are executed and Shahryar vows to reek revenge on all the women in his
land by marrying one a day, and then,
executing them the next morning.
Shahryar is haunted by his own curse and his dead brides come back to haunt him.
sheherezade has volunteered to be a future bride and her sister Dunyazad tries
to stop her.
Meanwhile the crowds celebrate the next wedding whilst Sheherezade prepares.
The inevitable happens and the marriage goes ahead.
Dunyazad and Sheherezade work on a plan that might save her life, but Shahryar
interrupts and escorts Sheherezade to his chambers.
Shahryar awakes in the middle of the night and discovers Dunyazad in his chambers.
She claims she misses her stories and Shahryar, is persuaded to listen to the
story of The Fisherman and the Jinni.
Shahryar falls asleep but dreams of his dead brides. The brides come back to haunt
him.
Dunyazad awakes in the chamber and is questioned by the Harem.
Shahryar awakes and is angry to discover Dunyazad is still there.
Dunyazad fleas with Marjannah (A harem girl) to seek out the Jinni for help.
Sheherezade fears for her life and persuades Shahryar to listen to another story.
She tells the story of Pearl Harvest.
Dunyazad and Marjannah are caught in a desert storm and when the wind calms down
Dunyazad relates the story of BacPak, the Kings Jester to Marjannah, simultaneously,
far away, Sheherezade tells the same story. - End of Act.1.
Act.2
Inside the bottle, Jinni Al Sakir gets depressed and commands his pets to dance
for him.
The story of BacPak continues until Dunyazad spots the Jinni's bottle in the sand
and releases the contents.
Jinni Al Sakir reluctantly listens to the pleas of help from the girls.
Three princes are banished from their Kingdom by their father for fighting.
He challenges them to find the ultimate gift and they go off on their quest.
Shahryar interrupts the story (who is now engrossed in Sheherezades tales) but
the story continues.
Once the story ends, Shahryar begins to realise his love for Sheherezade but he
has a further dilemma;
In the desert the Jinni is getting bored with his company and leaves to find Sheherezade.
Just as things are looking up for Sheherezade, Shayryar decides that she must
prove her stories are true.
Enter the Jinni, but Sharhryar is so blinkered he cannot see him.
Jinni and Sheherezade tell one last story and transform Shahryar into Sultan MahMud,
who then transforms into a donkey.
Shahryar awakes and realises his love for Sheherezade, and at the same time, a
normal life has returned to him.
The stories were just stories after all... or were they;