One-man show blends Holocaust, ‘Arabian Nights’

While on a 1943 transport to Buchenwald, Parisian cabaret entertainer and accused subversive Guy de Bonheur has one chance to talk his way off the death train. Mustering all of his artistic skills, de Bonheur recounts for his Nazi captors the "Tales of the Arabian Nights" in a desperate bid for freedom.

Sound dramatic? It should. That's a thumbnail description of "The Thousandth Night," opening Friday, June 17, at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre for a five-week run.

A one-man show, "The Thousandth Night" stars Ron Campbell. He was the obvious casting choice for this production: Playwright Carol Wolf wrote the one-act play for him back in 1993, and this time out he reteams with the show's original director, Jessica Kubzansky.

Over the years, Campbell has toured with the show on three continents, playing before sold-out audiences everywhere from Edinburgh to Tel Aviv to Los Angeles, where Campbell won the Drama Circle Award for his performance.

It's been a few years since he tackled the play, but he's happy to do so again. "This [play] is like an old pair of shoes," says the Orinda-based actor. "It fits good and I love playing the part."

Make that "parts." Campbell takes on 38 different roles over the course of the play, including de Bonheur and scores of colorful characters from "Arabian Nights," everyone from a baker, soldier, doctor and tailor to hunchbacked dwarf and executioner.

The lone survivor of his acting troupe, de Bonheur performs the tales with only a few props, pleading his cause, playing for time and learning in the process what it really means to be set free.

What's the connection between a French cabaret actor like de Bonheur, the Holocaust and the famous tales? Campbell wants audiences to find out for themselves, but he does say "the parallels are quite vivid if not directly on the head."

The play came about after Wolf saw Campbell in another one-man show. Eager to work with him, she asked the actor what he thought might make a good topic.

Campbell impulsively suggested the ninth century classic of Arabic literature, most famous for the stories of Ali Baba and Scheherazade (those characters figure into "The Thousandth Night").

"I had always been fascinated by the 'Arabian Nights,'" he says. "Actually they are very dark stories, almost an alternative to the Koran."

The idea of a Holocaust setting picked up steam when Campbell and Wolf discovered there had been a Café Scheherazade in occupied Paris, frequented by Nazi officers looking for an evening's worth of fun.

"As we slowly fleshed out what people would have played the parts, we knew what stories [from 'Arabian Nights'] we should include," he says. The play made its world premiere at San Diego's Globe Shakespeare Festival in 1993.

Over the course of his career, Campbell has appeared in such shows as "Benefactors" (at the Aurora), "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," "Waiting for Godot" and his signature one-man show "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe." Along the way, the L.A. native has won eight DramaLogue Awards.

Playing those 38 roles is physically demanding (Campbell calls it a "sweat fest"). But the actor is a master of the Japanese sword-wielding martial art of Iaido, so he's up for the rigors.

And while Campbell's top priority is that his audiences be entertained, he also hopes "The Thousandth Night," with its exploration of responsibility for fighting evil, imparts insight into the human condition.

He cites a quote that he points out is included in the play's program. "The hottest place in hell," he says, paraphrasing Voltaire, "is reserved for those who in times of crisis remain neutral."




"The Thousandth Night" plays 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays, June 17-July 24, at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets: $28-$45. Information: (510) 843-4822 or www.auroratheatre.org.