Theatre Review: The Arabian Nights

The stage explodes in a flurry of activity as a talented cast of 15 descends on it in Tony Award Winner Mary Zimmerman’s production “The Arabian Nights,” now at Chicago’s Looking Glass Theatre.  Drums beat furiously while beautiful carpets and actors fly through the air, one of them on a flying carpet.  The cast moves about the stage with the choreographed precision and enthusiasm of a group possessed with the conviction that it has great stories to tell, and tell them they do.  Everything from the philosophical to the scatological, tales of love and self-realization to tales of madness, revenge and absurdity are presented with a fluidity that moves from story to story.