[In the following review, Irwin compliments Iranian Nights, calling the play humorous and thought-provoking.]

“‘Why it's Ali Baba!’ Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. ‘It's dear old Ali Baba … And the Sultan's Groom turned upside-down by the Genii; there he is upon his head! Serve him right. I'm glad of it. What business had he to be married to the Princess!’” [In Iranian Nights] Tariq Ali and Howard Brenton, depressed and challenged by book-burnings, clenched-fisted mobs, death threats, fire-bombings and holy gangsterism, have found both solace and inspiration in the same source which the repenting Scrooge turned to, The Arabian Nights. The curtain opens on a stage set drawn from Dulac. The Caliph, a gaudily got-up Rumpelstiltskin played by Nabil Shaban, is waiting for the next story from Scheherezade (Fiona Victory), but her story-telling role is often usurped by Omar Khayyam (Paul Bhattacharjee). Together, Omar and the Caliph act out the story of a poet from an infidel isle who, sentenced to death for blasphemy, travels east to meet his judge, the Imam, in an attempt to save his life by talking (the Scheherezade tactic). He talks a lot, but the tactic does not work for him. Then Scheherezade relates an authentic story from the Nights, that of “The Qadi Yusuf with Harun al-Rashid and Queen Zubeidah”.

Finally, the scene switches to Bradford and the Caliph and the poet are reincarnated as father and son, first and second generation immigrants. The father argues for assimilation against his son who, as “just a soldier of Islam”, believes that the propagation of fear can be a way of propagating the Faith.

Iranian Nights is very loosely structured. It is really a rigged debate in which the Imam has few of the good lines (though Shaban delivers them with impeccable timing when he gets them). Some may feel that the Imam does not deserve good lines, and the authors are inclined to see the sentencing of Salman Rushdie as a corrupt political tactic, an aspect of the Realpolitik of the mullahs. Similarly, they interpret the Bradford Muslims' response to Satanic Verses as a social phenomenon, Islamic pride as an assertion of immigrant identity. There may be some truth in all this, but it may be that, in taking these lines, the authors are failing to engage fully with the otherworldly intransigence and intelligence of fundamentalist rigour. Moreover, the subtlety of censorship's fellow travellers in this country deserves fiercer scrutiny.

It was a good idea to draw on older and pleasanter representatives of Islamic culture, the medieval poets, al-Ma'ari and Umar Khayyam, as well as the anonymous contributors to The Arabian Nights, in order to demonstrate that bigotry has always had its critics within Islam itself. Very short, running for under an hour, Iranian Nights is still a comic night out, provoking and enjoyable. Its run at the Royal Court is not 1001 nights, but only nine. However, those interested (and that ought to be everyone), will be able to see it on Channel Four shortly.