Sharjah: The world’s best creative minds in live experiential entertainment have joined forces to create what is being dubbed as the biggest and most powerful stage adaptation of folk tale ‘One Thousand and One Nights’.
With heads of Multiple International, Artists in Motion — choreographers associated with the recent Cirque du Soleil productions — and top orchestra talents involved, Sharjah has pulled out all stops to create the epic, ‘1001 Nights: The Last Chapter’.
This entertainment production led by Al Majaz Amphitheatre, developed by Multiple International in partnership with 7Fingers and Artists in Motion will raise the curtain on Sharjah World Book Capital 2019 celebrations, on the evening of April 23, World Book Day.
Set to inaugurate a year-long cultural celebration to honour the Unesco title bestowed on the emirate for its cultural attainments, the massive stage production is being brought to life by a crew of 537 theatre artists and acrobats, innovators, technologists and storytellers from 25 nationalities.
The creative and production crews have already crossed the 1,000-hour mark in their preparations, spread across a duration of more than a year, the organisers said in a press release.
After giving UAE the ‘Clusters of Light’ operetta in 2014, when Sharjah was named the Islamic Culture Capital by the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), Philippe Skaff, CEO, Multiple International has returned as creative director of this show.
The show director’s chair has been occupied by Sebastien Soldevila, multiple award winner and co-founding artistic director of ‘The 7 Fingers’, an artist collective based in Canada.
At the helm of creative content production is Richard Lindsay, founder of Sydney-based company Artists in Motion, who has more than 20 years of experience in the field.
The 51-piece oriental orchestra that will be creating a live musical background for the artists and performers of ‘1001 Nights: The Last Chapter’, will be led by principal conductor, Harout Fazlian.
Maxim Lapage from Canada has teamed up with Fazilan. Responsible for mixing, Lapage will combine classical and electronic styles to create dramatic acoustics for the show.
The sound effects are created by sound designer, Mark Vreeken. The Last Chapter’s choreography and thrilling acrobatics are the brainchild of Canadian dancer, choreographer and artistic director, Genevieve Dorion-Coupal.
The creative genius behind the designs of The Last Chapter’s expressive, larger-than-life costumes is James Lavoie.
The show debuts at 9pm on Tuesday, and will run once daily at Al Majaz Amphitheatre till Saturday.
