Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The power of a story rests heavily on the five Hakawatis tonight, as they retell a staple: One Thousand and One Nights. Ordinary women with an extraordinary task, they are trapped in a dungeon spinning yarns to feed to Scheherazade, sustaining her entertainment to the bloodthirsty king. Run dry and she dies, along with their hopes of escape.

The Hakawatis – a name derived from the Arabic terms hekaye (meaning story) and haki (meaning to talk) – were masters of narrative oral tradition: theatrical storytellers who roamed between villages and settlements, adorning and re-moulding their tales with tit-bits gathered on the way. The skill of a Hakawati is underpinned by rhythm and music, and the violin, oud and percussion provide a transportive ambience to the intimate candle-lit stage, despite the musicians being hidden behind a veil.

For the prisoners, the potential for physical wandering is limited, so they rely on each other’s imaginations for embellishment, daring for scandalous detail and dramatisation in the tales: clothes become puppet animals, speech sweetens to song, hips sway seductively.

The play relies on the crackle of chemistry between the women, and they are a vivacious, feminist and joyously filthy team. The dialogue is sarcastic and laden with innuendo, which initially delights in its abandon, but risks dragging into predictability, as the shock factor of every story culminating in “cock-sucking” wears off.

Whilst we learn of the women’s vivid personalities, varied professions and ambitions post-escape – “I can finally join the army!”, “I want to set up an all-female dance studio” – their individual stories could have been fleshed out, strengthening an emotional and historical bedrock for the audience to lean on. The fables are entertaining – hilarious in part – but begin to feel heavy in their repetition, and the audience is left wanting more personal than general to fully invest in the women’s fate.

Nevertheless, the essence of female camaraderie burns brightly alongside the candles, and Queen Bee Theory is officially debunked. “She sounds like any woman,” laments Fatah the young of Scheherazade’s green eyes and charming mind. “She is, we are all Scheherazade,” assures Naha the wise, in a rallying reminder that beneath one extraordinary woman is a team of the seemingly ordinary, collectively paddling away to enable the swan to save the day.

Ellen Wilkinson
Photos: Ellie Kurtzz

Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights is at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 21^st December until 14^th January 2023. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.