1001 Nights Now, picks up the narrative thread first spun by this literary heroine and continues the epic by exploring the theme of storytelling as a means of survival.

Set in a Christmas decorations factory in modern day Britain, a group of migrant workers from the Middle East ward off their dislocation by exchanging stories and by doing so, keep their own culture and themselves alive through the act of retelling.

But gone are Scheherazade's classic heroes and in rushes the reality of life in the Middle East; suicide bombers hungry for democracy, the rise of Muslim militants, the shame of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the fate Palestine, the occupation of Iraq and of course the War Against Terror.

Each story - and there are ten in total, written by nine writers from the Middle East - takes the form of either modern folk-tale, philosophical allegory or eyewitness testimonial and each is as bold, moving and eye opening as the next.

Award winning stand-up comedian, Shazia Miraz, who featured as part of the cast during the production's autumn tour, delivered a touching, self-penned account of forbidden love between two Muslim women in Bahrain. Phillip Arditti, presents a chilling portrait of a suicide bomber videotaping his last goodbye to his daughter while Kourosh Asad's account of a translator working in Abu Ghraib and later as a father who looses his entire family in Palestine are incredibly powerful. The most haunting rendition is the psychological thriller of rape and revenge in Tehran, endured when a mother tries to protect her daughter from the advances of her second husband.

This daring production, directed Alan Lyddiard, in his last outing for the Northern Stage Theatre Company, is testimony to his genius and boundless creativity, filling gaps in the stories with Turkish Karagoz puppetry, authentic Middle Eastern dances, not to mention Paul Stear's electrifying soundtrack which bombards the stage with all the colour and clamour of a souk, that contrasts so dramatically with the stark white factory floor set. Lyddiard also creates some staggeringly moving scenes; like the precarious sky scrapper citadel, patently reminiscent of 9/11, made from stacked cardboard boxes or transforming the wire packing cases, which hold boxes of bright Christmas baubles, into Guantanamo's cages.

1001 Night Now, is an inspiring, thought-provoking and very necessary production, that provides a platform upon which the real histories and experiences of people in the Middle East can reveal themselves and is so doing provide an enduring counter balance to the prisms of suspicion and stereotyping through which the Muslim world and Middle East are usually observed.

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