The Arabian Nights
by Mary Zimmerman

"One thing that makes Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights so special is that it conveys a sumptuousness of aesthetic and imagination, yet might enchant nearly as much if performed by these actors in ordinary street dress on a patch of lawn. Like Scheherezade herself, the show conjures storytelling magic out of thin air; the true production values here aren’t material, but human."

— Variety

"It isn’t just the stories themselves – comic or poignant anecdotes of infidelity, greed and revenge; Koranic parables of enlightenment; one huge fart joke – that create enchantment... It’s also the way one tale opens up into another and then another, as Scheherezade keeps spinning yarns to save her life. It’s the transfixed attention of her husband, King Shahryar, mirroring our own absorption as he decides each morning to put off Scheherezade’s execution one more day so he can find out how the current narrative turns out."

— SF Gate

"Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights avoids the familiar chestnuts about Aladdin and his genie, Ali Baba and his forty thieves, and the like; it instead focuses on a whirlwind tour through the various genres the format can sustain."

— DC Theatre Scene

"There is not a single weak moment in Lookingglass’ The Arabian Nights. The only disappointment one can find with this piece is that, inevitably, it must end."

— Art and Performance Journal

"A celebration of the salutary powers of storytelling... of the rich, inexhaustible multiplicity of a narrative tradition."

— New York Times