How can we tell these stories??
Arabian Nights: A mad King filled with rage is scorned by an unfaithful wife and comes to a faulty realization that all women shall not be trusted. From there, he decides he is going to sleep with a different woman every night just to kill her the next day. This story told by several different authors exhibits a compilation of thrilling stories told by Scheherazade to King Shahryar in an effort to save her life. Each of these stories teaches lessons to the King and also entertains him enough so he is not tempted to kill Scheherazade the next day. Instead, he becomes eager to hear the following story she has in mind. The Nights have been translated into several different variations of the same story. This is an issue because key aspects of the Nights become lost throughout the translation. This typically involves non-Arab authors making the story available for English speakers and then the story falls into the trap of orientalism -a style of thought that the Orient must be colonized or dominated by the West. It is possible that the story of the Arabian Nights can be available for English speakers(or non-Arabs). A prime example of this would be The Arabian Nights Play written by Mary Zimmerman. The Arabian Nights Play was first produced in 1992. This play gives actors an avenue to make an enticing story come to life on the big stage and allows for the tale of the Arabian Nights to universalize. More specifically, it gives the chance for anybody to play the characters in the story. With a total of twenty-two roles, there’s plenty of opportunity for people of any acting ability to perform this play to completion. In making the story to English speakers, the play accurately translates the stories -from the original Arabian Nights- into English for actors to perform. However, it is vital that non-Arab performers not fall to orientalism. This is a minute conflict to avoid with the play because actors are given the freedom to depict the characters however they want -not to mention that playwrights could change the names of the Arab Characters into more English names and tell the same stories. After all, it is the stories within the play that are important and less so the characters, such as Scheherezade, that are telling them. Aside from anyone being able to play the parts, the fact that the story is being told on stage makes the viewer realize that the story being told is most likely fiction. The original tale of the Arabian Nights includes murder, revenge, and sexism. Being that the story was published to thousands of English speakers, it can lead English people to believe that people of the Orient behave this way in real life. Reading only text allows for the reader to think of the characters however they want which can lead to presumptuous claims that fall under the orientalist umbrella – especially if the version being read was written by a non-Arab. On the other hand, performing the story on stage gives the audience a visualization of the story being told. That being said, it is reasonable to assume that most viewers would believe that the story of the Arabian Nights is fictional and that not Arabs do not behave in such a vicious manner as King Scheherazade. Although the play was written best to avoid orientalist ideas toward Arabs, there are many things within the play that Mary Zimmerman could improve. For instance, the stage direction in the play becomes rather irrational. On page four it states, “The lights rise slowly on Shahryar with his hand pressing the woman’s mouth. Or perhaps he is using the loosened end of his turban stuffing her mouth”(Zimmerman 4). This stage direction appears at the very beginning of the play and shows the king killing the woman that betrayed him. Although the King is supposed to be violent and gruesome, using the turban as a weapon brings up several issues. Using a turban to murder his wife not only reflects the motive of the King, but it insinuates that the clothing that Arabs wear can be used to represent violence. This is an aspect of the show that can be left out but still have the same effect. As Zimmerman said, the King could have simply used his hand to murder the wife, but using a Turban puts an orientalist twist that could easily be avoided. A cloth that represents spirituality and holiness should not be used as a direct source of violence and it certainly should not be done on stage in front of an audience. Surely leaving this aspect out can allow for the Arabian Nights play to become more universalized. The author of Arabian Nights unknowingly produced a story that would be translated into a version for English speakers. However, these versions allowed non-Arabs and English speakers to fall to the implications of orientalism. The ideas presented in the book convince non-Arabs that Arabic people are similar to the ones in the story of the Arabian Nights. Since this is not the case, authors such as Mary Zimmerman create different versions of the Nights that perhaps have fewer elements that induce Orientalism into the minds of readers. The play allows the viewers to see the story as fiction rather than a reflection of the Middle Eastern lifestyle and it also lets anybody who wants to perform the play thus universalizing the story.
