Layla Means Night

Inspired by the Persian tale of the cunning bride whose storytelling skills save her from a murderous husband, Layla is a sumptuous and melodramatic re-imagining of the Scheherazade story that frames One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Layla unfolds in multiple live performance forms over many rooms; part funhouse, part séance, part wedding banquet; the piece invites guests to enter an experiential labyrinth of illusions and amusements that engage all five senses.

Layla features an original live score by Houman Pourmehdi and Pirayeh Pourafar, acclaimed masters of Persian music, as well as contemporary Iranian poetry in both Farsi and English. Daring, disturbing, and not afraid of entertaining, Layla plays with new forms of public engagement as the piece is directly experiential and participatory. Layla’s purposeful design meaningfully integrates traditional artists, as well as local merchants and community-members, into RGWW’s inclusive praxis. 

Layla’s surface is playful and wild: think pop-up restaurant meets high-art three-ring circus. But there is a serious undertone, engaging each "guest" in action that confronts questions of self and other; trust, betrayal, and assumption, as the viewer is made complicit with the story's most objectionable characters, and pulled deeply into prickly conversations about violence and our insatiable desire to be entertained.

Premiere: ODC THEATRE, SAN FRANCISCO 2013