1001 Nights

SCENE 1:
(Introduction of the King)
Narrator: In a land deep in a yellow desert, there was a King. A king whose beloved wife has
betrayed him. He became convinced in his grief and madness that all women were evil and
untrustworthy. But he was not able to give up the company of young women. And being the King
he decreed that he would marry a different maiden every morning, have a wedding night with her
and have her head cut off the next morning. He went night after night, day after day through the
daughters of Princes and merchants and Vizirs. His country was almost up and arms against him.

King: I shall make all maidens in my kingdom taste my wrath for they are all as evil as my wife!

SCENE 2:
(Wedding ceremony with 2nd wife)
(Death of wife)

SCENE 3:
Narrator: The King has a loyal Vizir whose job was to procure these girls, to greet them at the
door after the wedding night and to oversee the cutting of their heads. The King's Vizir has two
daughters. The oldest one is Scheherazade and the younger one is Dunyazad. One day,
Scheherazad came to her mother and said...
Scheherazade: Mother, grant me this wish that I ask you.
Vizir: Oh anything my daughter!
Scheherazade: I want to be the next bride of the Sultan.
Vizir: No! You know what happens to those young women.
Scheherazade: Mother, I must.
Narrator: Scheherazade argued and argued with her mother and finally she convinced her. The
next day, the Vizir brough her own beloved daughter to marry the King.

SCENE 4:
(Wedding day)
(Song)

SCENE 5:
Scheherazade: My dear husband, I have one request. I have a younger sister who I would like to
be able to say goodbye. She was used to hearing a story every night. May she come late in the
evening just before dawn and I will tell her a story.
King: Yes, of course my dear wife.
(Sister will enter)
Sister: Sister? My king? May I come in?
King : Yes, come in young lady.
Scheherazade: Oh auspicious king, have you heard of the story of the fisherman and the Djinn?
There was once a poor fisherman who could barely put food on the table for his family. He went
out every day and cast his net four times to bring what little he could get from the sea and he went
out to the sea that day and he spread his net and he checked the weights and he casted it. There
was something heavy in it and he pulled and he pulled but it was a carcass of a dead donkey.
Fisherman: There is no God but God.
(Casts the net)
(Load of broken pots filled with water)
Fisherman: I will cast it two more times. Lord you know my need. (Mends the net)
(Casts the net again)
(Mud and rocks)
The fisherman was discouraged. But he trusted that things would be fine and he would be
provided for.
(Casts net for the last time)
(Brass jar)
Fisherman: Well, it will at least bring a little money in the brass market.
(Tries to open jar. Djinn comes out)
(Smoke comes out)
Fisherman: Oh mighty Solomon. Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me! I will never disobey you
again...(Looks at Djinn) Solomon has been dead for centuries. We are in a new age.
Djinn: Solomon is gone? (Stretches arms) Well, I will give you one wish. I will let you wish. In
what manner would you like to die?
Fisherman: What? But but I have rescued you from that jar.
Djinn: And that is why I'm letting you choose in what manner of your death rather than something
that I would concoct for you.
Fisherman: That is not fair!
Djinn: Let me tell you my story. I was one of the rebellious genie and I fought against Solomon
who wore the ring with the name of God on it until his loyal jinn subdued me. They brought me
before him and asked me to yield and I refused. And then they sealed me on this jar and sealed
with the ring with the name of god and they threw me far out in the ocean. So I ranted and raged
in this jar and for the first hundred years, I said whoever releases me from this jar I will make him
King among men! But no one came. And for the second two hundred years, I said whoever
releases me from this jar I will give him all the treasures of the earth! But no one came. And for
the next two hundred years, I said whoever releases me from this jar, I will give him a wish every
day for the rest of his life. But no one came. I fought against the sides of the jar and I vowed that
whoever releases me from the jar, I will let him choose the manner of his death. So choose and be
quick! I have things to catch up on.
Fisherman: But my children! My poor wife! What would they do without me! No! (Talking to
himself) He is a son of Satan. I am a human being. Surely I can outwit him. (Looks at djinn)
Answer me one question truthfully.
Djinn: Yes.
Fisherman: Answer me in the name of Solomon.
Djinn: Alright! I will answer. What is it?
Fisherman: Were you really in that jar? It does not seem big enough.
Djinn: I was in the jar.
Fisherman: I do not believe you.
Djinn: I was in the jar! Must I show you?
Fisherman: Yes show me!
Djinn: (Disappears; "goes in the jar")
Fisherman: (Closes the jar)
Djinn: (In the jar) Do you believe me now?
Fisherman: Yes, I believe you and I have you now! You were in that jar for eight hundred years?
You will be in that jar now till doomsday. I will build a hut right here and I will warn all the
fisherman not to fish and tell them that there is a lying deceitful jinn in a jar just off the shore.
Djinn: Do not do that.
Fisherman: Why not?!
Djinn: Be merciful..
Fisherman: Were you going to be merciful to me? Did I not beg you to allow me to live?
Djinn: Let me out fisherman. And I will give you the riches of the world.
Scheherazade: The djinn and the fisherman argued back and forth and they told one another
stories and eventually the fisherman did let the Djinn out of the jar and by the end of the story, the
fisherman was a wealthy man with enough money to support his wife and children and their
children's children until the end of their days.
Narrator: On the hundred and seventy-first night, Scheherazade had been spinning stories for the
King and her younger sister listening night after night after night and being spared execution,
night after night after night.
Scheherazade: Oh auspicious King, I have heard a story of a Vizir who had no son. A king who
had no son and this was a great tragedy in the realm for who would inherit after him. He had
prayed and sought and wished and finally he went to his Vizir and said...
King 2: I need a son.
Vizir: Go and say your prayers with special fervency and lie with your wife and I am sure a son
will be born.
Scheherazade: And sure enough in nine months his wife gave birth to a baby the likes of which
no one had ever seen. As beautiful as the day and as the child grew strength and beauty, everyone
adored him for his beauty. Kumar loved his father and adored him and would do anything his
father asked for. When Kumar is in his middle teen years, his father, who is an old man, began to
worry that he might die before his son could take the throne.
King 2: I want him to marry and take the throne in my lifetime.
Vizir: That is a fine idea sire.
(Prince enters, kisses his father's hand)
King 2: Oh my son, I have something to ask you.
Prince: Oh anything father.
King 2: I wish you to marry in my lifetime so that you may take the throne.
Prince: No father. That is something I can never do. I have read what the poet's say about women.
I know they are all deceitful and evil and he who puts his mind on women cannot think of
anything else. I have read the poet's father, who say that a woman will open her heart to you today
and her thighs to the rest of the world tomorrow.
King 2: (shocked) Where have you heard such terrible poetry.
Prince: No I absolutely refused to marry!
(Prince exits)
Vizir: No sire. He is still young. Wait a year and ask him again.
Narrator: In a year's time, as Kamar continued to grow and strengthen beauty with a mouth like
bow and hair like Raven's wing and a thin waist and beautiful eyes.
(Prince enters, bows to his father, kisses hand. King strokes his hair)
King 2: My son, I would like you to marry in my lifetime so that I can see you sit on the throne.
Prince: No father, I am sorry the answer is still no. I will never marry. I have no interest in women
and I will never marry one of them.
(King upset, calls vizir and consults him)
Vizir: Wait one more year sire and next time, ask him in front of a great assembly of your princes
and your merchants and vizirs he will not be able to refuse your request in front of such an
assembly.
(Prince walks in)
King 2: My son, I wish you to marry.
Prince: Father, I have answered that questions two times. Have you slipped into your dotage.
King 2: How dare you speak to me like that you nursling of sins!
(Soldier comes in. Grabs Kumar's arms)
King 2: Take him to the ruined tower and let him think about his sins there.

(Prince at the tower, cries, then sleep)

(Female genie comes out, looks at the tower, looks at the prince, adores him)
Female Genie: Oh what a beautiful man. I should tell someone.
("Flies" and collides with male genie)
Male Genie: Oh my lady, my lady I am so sorry. I was just so excited. I have seen the most
beautiful human in the world and I had to come up and tell someone.
Female G: The most beautiful human in the world? I have seen the most beautiful human in the
world.
Male G: He cannot be like mine. Mine is the daughter of the king of China . She is so lovely. Her
father has built her seven palaces to hold her dower but she will not marry. She says she is already
a queen, why would she let some man rule over her. When her father pursued her, she resisted so
she is shut up in a tall stone tower.
Female G: My beloved is also shut up in a stone tower and he is surely more beautiful than yours.
Male G: If you can only see her, you will surely be mesmerized in her beauty.
Female G: The only way to decide this matter was to see the two young people side by side.
Bring that young lady you are talking about.
Female G: Oh my goodness! I could have mistaken them as twins.
Scheherazade: It became cleart they could not decide which of their beloved's was the more
beautiful.
Female G: We need an impartial judge ( stamps herf foot, hideous gennie comes out)
Hideous Genie: Yes my lady, what do you wish?
Female G: Which of these two is the more beautiful?
Hideous G: ( Looks at them) They are equally beautiful, in fact they could be twins . But my lady,
I can think of a way to decide this.
Female G: Tell me then.
Hideous G: We will wake them up one at a time and see who falls in love more strongly with the
other.
Male G: (Wakes up Prince)
Prince: (Wakes up, looks at Princess, adores her) This must be the young woman my father wishes
me to marry. Oh, what a fool I have been. I must restrain myself from touching her. (Looks at her
hand) Ah, I will take just this ring as a token (Take the ring, wears it)
(Male Genie casts a spell, prince falls asleep)
Female G: (Wakes up princess)
Princess: (Wakes up ) Where am I? (Looks around, finds the Prince sleeping) What a beautiful
man! (Wakes up prince, prince stays asleep) Sir, sir wake up. You have my heart come and take
the rest of me. (Looks at his hand) Oh my ring. You have taken a little token from me, I will take
one from you. (Gets his ring and wears it)
(Female Genie casts a spell, princess falls asleep)
Male G: Well, we can't see who fell inlove more strongly with whom.
Female G: Yes sir. Women's passions run hotter than men. Well, you take that girl. Take her back
where she belongs.

(Prince wakes up, notices the princess is gone, acts wild, bnags the door)
Prince: Where is the girl? Where have you hidden her?
Soldier 1: Girl sire? There was no girl.
Prince: Where is the girl? The girl who was here with me last night.
Soldier 1: Sir you were alone. I guarded the door. There was no one.
Prince: (Angry, ties the soldier, strangles the soldier)
Prince: Where is the girl?!
Soldier 1: (Struggling) There was no girl.
Prince: (continues)
Soldier 1: Oh, do you mean the girl? The beautiful girl with the elegant form?
Prince: Yes, where is she?
Soldier 1: Let me go sire and I will go and get her.
(Prince lets him go, soldier goes to the King)
Soldier: Sire, my lord, your son has gone mad. He is looking for a girl.
King: (To Vizir) This is your doing. You go and see him.
Vizir: (Runs to the tower)
Prince: (Smiling like an 'idiot') So where is the girl that my father wishes me to marry. She was
here last night. Tell him I am ready readyto marry her.
Vizir: Sire, there was no girl. It was just a dream
Prince: No no no! Look I have her ring upon my finger. I have it, she was here. Where is she? Do
not torture me anymore. (Prince grabs the Vizir's beard)
Vizir: Let me...let me go and I ill get your father. (Runs to the King)
Vizir: Oh indeed sire, your son has gone mad.