Next Stage Theatre Festival doesn’t offer 1,001 nights of entertainment, but it does offer a dozen nights featuring 10 different shows, one of which is Scheherazade, playwright Johnnie Walker’s take on the legend of the Persian queen who told stories for "One Thousand and One Nights." One Thousand and One Nights to postpone her royal husband Shahriyar’s intention to behead her. Walker, and his partner at Nobody’s Business Theatre, Director Morgan Norwich, have made this timeless tale decidedly contemporary, with enough sex and violence that it would make great late night TV.
Whereas the Fringe Festival is unjuried (i.e., no quality control), its winter counterpart Next Stage Theatre Festival, now in the seventh year, is a curated festival, that is to say, these 10 shows have been vetted and selected to represent the best work of established and successful Fringe performers. Shows run from 30 to 90 minutes long. There are comedies, dramas, dance, and musicals. Some are remounts and some, such as Scheherazade, are new works. Nobody’s Business Theatre has been creating new comedies since 2005 and, having seen this one, I’ll be keeping my eye out for future works.
Once upon a time, the stories of The 1,001 Nights were called entertainments, and this show certainly is an entertainment. The space at Factory Studio is not big and with a cast of eleven (six women and five men), the stage was almost as packed as the sold-out audience. In Scheherazade, the male characters have power that is inherited, but the women are of strong character. Wiley and self-assured female characters dominate the show.
Nobody’s Business Theatre describes Scheherazade as “part epic fable, part darkly erotic satire." There is strong language, gritty Tarantino-esque violence, and a good dose of bacchanalian lust and booze, but it is not overdone. Just enough in-your-face brandishing of weaponry to make you widen your eyes occasionally, and sex which is abundant, blatant and scintillating but without being crass (depending on your tolerance threshold for debauchery). The set, comprised of a partial wall and a bed, and costumes are fairly simple and the colour scheme is primarily black and white (Brook Alviano, costume designer; Adam Bourret, production designer). The playful soundtrack is cinematic and gunshots will wake you up (Gordon Hyland, sound designer) but there is nothing in this production to make you nod off.
Scene after scene, Director Norwich draws an even balance of energies from the varied and lively cast who are so uniformly talented it would be hard to pick favourites. This sometimes serious “comedy/drama” has more mirth than gravity, and even the most menacing character, King Shahriyar (very funny Steven McCarthy, reminding me alternately of Gene Wilder, Justin Trudeau, and John Holmes) who has murdered each of his thousand brides following the wedding night to keep them from being unfaithful, generates far more laughs than shivers. There are briefly sobering moments in the show but, with the framing story being broken up by numerous short tales, there is no sustained dramatic tension. Nevertheless, the dialogue is clever and sometimes thoughtful, and for the entire 90 minutes, Scheherazade keeps you eager for more.
Next Stage Theatre Festival runs from Jan. 8 to 19 at the Factory Theatre.
Evan Andrew Mackay is a Toronto playwright and humorist who writes about culture and social justice.
