Arabian Nights

Dominic Cooke

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781780011028
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A simple and delightfully inventive re-telling of the stories from the Arabian Nights.

It is wedding night in the palace of King Shahrayar. By morning, the new Queen Shahrazad is to be put to death like all the young brides before her. But she has one gift that could save her – the gift of storytelling.

With her mischievous imagination, the young Queen spins her dazzling array of tales and characters. On her side are Ali Baba, Es-Sindibad the Sailor and Princess Parizade – adventurers in strange and magical worlds populated by giant beasts, talking birds, devilish ghouls and crafty thieves. But will her silver-tongued stories be enough to enchant her husband and save her life?

This revised edition of Dominic Cooke's Arabian Nights was published alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company's production in 2009.

ACT ONE

The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

In this story, the THIEVES are played as a chorus, becoming the horses, the cave, and the treasure inside.

SHAHRAZAD. In a city in Persia, there lived two brothers, one called Kasim and the other Ali Baba. When their father died he left them an equal share of the little he had, but fortune was not half as fair. Kasim married a widow who owned a shop bursting with fine goods. He soon became a wealthy man and lived a life of ease. Ali Baba, on the other hand, married a woman as dirt poor as he was. He lived very sparsely and was forced to scratch a living chopping wood in a nearby forest. Day after day he’d chop and chip and hack and split, until his back ached and his hands blistered and the sun was so low in the sky that he could barely see the blade of his axe. Then he’d bring the wood home to sell the next day on two skinny donkeys, which were all he owned in the world.

ALI BABA. One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest, he noticed, in the distance, a vast cloud of dust. When he peered closer he saw a band of horsemen riding towards him at great speed. Ali Baba was suspicious. He tied his donkeys behind a nearby bush and clambered up a tall, close-leafed tree next to a cliff, where he could see without being seen.

The THIEVES enter. They are wearing black capes, armed with knives and carrying bulging saddlebags. SHAHRAZAD joins them.

CAPTAIN. Dismount!

The THIEVES dismount.

ALI BABA. Ali Baba counted the men and found that they numbered forty. From their dead eyes and shining daggers he guessed that they were bandits.

CAPTAIN. The one he took for their Captain passed under the tree and stood in front of the cliff.

The THIEVES become the cliff.

OPEN SESAME!

The ‘cliff door’ opens. CAPTAIN enters and also becomes the cliff.

ALI BABA. Immediately, the door swept shut.

The door shuts.

Ali Baba froze in the tree like a falcon fixed on its prey. Eventually, the door opened again, and the Forty Thieves appeared.

CAPTAIN. CLOSE SESAME!

The door shuts.

SHAHRAZAD. Each thief mounted his horse and they galloped off into the dust.

ALI BABA climbs down and goes to the door.

ALI BABA. OPEN SESAME.

Instantly the door flies wide open. The THIEVES become the inside of the cliff by reversing their capes which are lined with gold.

Ali Baba was astonished to find a bright, airy cavern, carved out of the rock like the holy dome of a mosque. Inside was a landscape of limitless riches. Islands of sparkling treasure sat in rivers of rich silks and brocades, valleys of precious carpets and, above all, mountain upon mountain of sacks and purses bursting with shimmering gold and silver coins. He realised that this cavern had been a hiding place, not for years but for centuries, for generation after generation of thieves.

He quickly scooped up as many gold coins as his donkeys could bear.

OPEN SESAME!

He exits the cave.

CLOSE SESAME!

At once the door shuts.

He disguised the coins with firewood to prevent them from being seen and set off for home.

Wife, look at this.

He puts the bags at her feet. ALI’S WIFE prods them, looks inside one. Then he empties the bags on to the floor, and the cascades of gold dazzle her eyes.

ALI’S WIFE. Oh, Ali Baba, what have you done? We may be poor but that doesn’t mean you have the right to steal. If you get caught, they’ll cut off your hand. If they cut off your hand, you can’t chop wood. If you can’t chop wood, we’ll have no money. If we have no money, we have no food. If we have no food, we’ll starve. If we starve, we’ll...

ALI BABA. Wife –

ALI’S WIFE. You’ve brought shame upon this house! You’ve lied, you’ve stolen! You’ve ruined everything!

ALI’S WIFE starts hitting her husband with her fists under the following lines:

How could you? How could you? How –

ALI BABA. Calm down and keep quiet. Wait till you hear what just happened.

He told her his adventures from beginning to end and they agreed to keep the whole story as secret as the mystery of the Sphinx.

ALI’S WIFE (screaming). We’re rich!

ALI BABA. Shhh!

She does a little dance of joy and then starts to count the gold, piece by piece.

ALI’S WIFE. One, two, three, four...

ALI BABA. Don’t be a dolt, wife. It would take all week to get this lot counted. We need to hide the coins right now. I’ll dig a hole in the garden.

ALI’S WIFE. No, it’s no good. I simply have to know how big our fortune is. I know. I’ll borrow some scales from your brother. I’ll quickly weigh the gold while you dig the hole.

ALI BABA. If you insist. But remember: he who is silent is safe.

ALI’S WIFE. Ali Baba’s wife fluttered over to her brother-in-law Kasim, who lived nearby. As he was not at home, she asked his wife if she would kindly lend her some scales for a short while.

KASIM’S WIFE. Certainly. Wait here while I fetch them.

Now, the sister-in-law knew that Ali Baba was as poor as a pebble, and immediately smelt a rat. ‘They can barely afford a bowl of rice between the three of them,’ she thought, ‘What the devil could they have enough of that it needs to be weighed?’ So in order to catch them out, she greased the inside of the pan of the scales.

KASIM’S WIFE goes back and gives the scales to ALI’S WIFE.

I am sorry it’s taken me so long, my dear. The servants had mislaid them.

ALI’S WIFE. Ali Baba’s wife rushed the scales home and began to weigh the gold. Then, whilst Ali Baba buried it, she returned the scales, saying:

Sister-in-law, I said I would only be a while. I am as good as my word. Here they are. I am much obliged.

ALI’S WIFE turns to leave. KASIM’S WIFE peers into the scales and finds a piece of gold stuck to the pan.

KASIM’S WIFE. What’s this? Ali Baba has enough gold coins to fill a pair of scales? Where did the penniless pauper get it from?

Kasim’s wife couldn’t wait to tell her husband the news, but she had to button her lip till he returned from his shop that evening.

Enter KASIM.

Kasim, you think yourself a wealthy man, but you are mistaken. Ali Baba has far more money than you. He doesn’t count his gold as you do, he weighs it.

KASIM’S WIFE shows KASIM the gold coin. He bites it. It’s real.

KASIM. Instead of feeling happy for his brother’s good fortune, Kasim was stricken with deadly jealousy and didn’t sleep a wink all night. Before sunrise the next morning, he marched straight over to his brother’s house.

KASIM knocks on ALI BABA’s door.

Ali Baba, my wife found this stuck to the scales you borrowed yesterday.

KASIM shows ALI BABA the coin.

I demand an explanation.

ALI BABA. Ali Baba realised that, thanks to his dizzy wife, Kasim had discovered their secret. So rather than risking all the thieves’ gold, he struck a deal. He agreed to tell Kasim where he found the treasure, if Kasim would share it equally and promise never to tell a soul.

KASIM. Determined to get the treasure first, at dawn the next day, Kasim set off with wooden chests loaded onto ten mules.

Enter the THIEVES as mules.

He followed the directions Ali Baba had given him, till he reached the cliff.

The THIEVES become the cliff.

OPEN SESAME!

The door flies open. As he enters, the THIEVES become the inside of the cave.

His eyes pored over the riches inside, which were beyond his wildest dreams. Greed and longing so possessed him that he spent the day in open-mouthed wonder, and clean forgot till evening that he had come to take some of the treasure away.

At last he snapped out of his trance and dragged as many sacks as he could to the door.

OPEN SEMOLINA!

The door remains closed.

OPEN SULTANA!... OPEN SUNFLOWER!... OPEN SARDINE!

The stubborn door doesn’t budge.

The more Kasim searched for the word, the more it escaped him, until the fire of his greed was extinguished by waves of icy dread.

SHAHRAZAD. At nightfall, th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Characters
• Note on Cast
• Prologue
• Act One
• Act Two
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information