Storytelling has the power to change people. As the Mahabharata tells us: "If you listen carefully, at the end you’ll be someone else." The same could be said of the Arabian Nights, in which the wounded heart of a king, betrayed by his wife, is healed by the storytelling of the clever Shahrazad. In Rachel O’Riordan’s enjoyable revival of a sparely poetic adaptation by Dominic Cooke you can see Ashley Alymann’s King physically soften as his new wife’s tales work their medicinal magic on him.
This is a show that allows him and us to put ourselves in the minds, eyes, ears and hearts of other people, to empathise with them – whether it’s the mortified, farting Abu Hassan, Ali Baba’s cunning servant or a king who behaves very badly indeed. Any moral message is delivered lightly. The production boasts more than a touch of magic in Hayley Grindle’s design, where lightbulbs glow like stars in the sky, and there is also good work from Simon Slater, whose rousing score is spicy and exotic.
The production sometimes mistakes hyperactivity for physical invention, and loses a bit of momentum in the long penultimate story, but this is a nicely judged couple of hours. It has a timeless quality as it mines the poetry and comedy in tales which range from the familiar (Sinbad) to the story of a man whose wife turns out to be flesh-eating ghoul.
There is a fine, multiskilled ensemble of actor-musicians. If the acting is a little overemphatic in the opening scenes, things settle down swiftly. Joanna Hickman in particular makes a mark as Ali Baba’s snobby sister-in-law, a jealous sister and a sorceress. A lovely reminder of the transformative power of storytelling.
• Until 31 December. Box office: 029-2064 6900. Venue: Sherman, Cardiff.
