Word: sultan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...tent of exile" from society. Scolded by his mother for his idleness. Aladdin is dispatched by a wicked magician to an enchanted cave, where he is to fetch a magic lamp. Aladdin winds up hanging onto the lamp, using its genie to help win the hand of a Sultan's beautiful daughter. The magician, of course, steals the lamp, along with the Princess...
...revenge," as Mayer points out in a program note. But Mayer eliminates much of the suspense: Aladdin's difficulties are solved handily by two genies, and the lad swiftly and stoically executes the evil magician, who has been drugged by the Princess. So what's the point? Aladdin, the Sultan explains at the end of the play, got lucky. But he measured up to his luck, he gave it a good home. Throughout the play. Aladdin's spirit is large and independent enough to control his own destiny. If he is not particularly sensitive to the sufferings of his mother...
There are also angry, loving, weary monologues by Aladdin's mother, delivered in suitably earth-bound settings, and consistently funny allusions to the Sultan's autonomy, as when the Grand Wazir explains to the disrespectful Scholar Wu that the Sultan has spared his life because "the absolute impotence of your attacks consoles him." Or when a Lady of the Sultan's court agrees with Aladdin's mother about the Princess's beauty: "She's a lovely girl. I say so, so should you: to do otherwise would be treason...
...moments of gaunt, tranquil beauty as Aladdin's mother, and Vincent Canzoneri is a wittily forthright Scholar Wu. As the Grand Wazir, David Prum reveals a precious comic style, a sublimely funny blend of ham and deadpan, and Jenny Cornuelle, a most impudently regal actress, is a flashing, mesmerizing Sultan. Maybe best of all is the Princess of Bonnie Zimmering, who has never seemed as exquisitely sculpted, as delicately, opalescently winsome; she has developed a sly and bewitching way of infusing her lines with a touch of impish satire. In the large supporting cast, Sarah Sewall, Martha Hackett and Philip...
OMAN. Ten years ago, Oman (pop. 800,000) was one of the most underdeveloped nations in the Arab world. It had only three elementary schools, a handful of doctors and nurses, and was ruled by tyrannical Sultan Said bin Taimur, who hoarded state revenues (all in gold) in the basement of his palace. Finally, his Sandhurst-educated son, Qaboos, then 29, staged a palace coup and set about bringing the country into the 20th century. Today Oman boasts 375 schools and 14 modern hospitals. A rebellion in the Dhofar region, fanned by Marxist South Yemen, has been snuffed...