The lavish tale of The Hunchback and the winds through the memory of the darkly comic Barber, as the sinister world of his six brothers unfolds, all an embodiment of the seven deadly sins. He recounts barely escaping death from ten condemned men and a cantankerous Caliph. The first brother al Bakbuk, the prattler, a Hunchback tailor lustily covets his Landlord’s wife. As he schemes with her servant to have her for fine robes, the husband has him yoked to a mill as an ox, whilst the women laugh in sheer delight. The second Al Haddar, the foolish babbler is brimming with lusty delight, and falls in the company of an old woman, who lures him to a harem the Wazirs wife who showers him with slaps and painful conditions, and a drunken throng of devilish maidens who ply him with wine, pelt him with lemons, citrons, and pillows, and uproarious crescendo of and drunken frolic and trap doors.
The third Al Fakik, the greedy blind beggar crosses path with a asly and devious House master who endures great lengths of whips and flogging to his pack of blind bandits a lesson they’ll never forget. He sadistically laughs as their blows aretripled and delightfully helps himself to a third of their gold. The fourth brother, Al Kuz al Aswani, the gabbler, long necked gugglet, and town butcher personifies wrath as he metesout justice to a thieving shapeshifting old shaykh who warns him to turn a blind eye. Silver coins transform intopaper, a slaughtered ram turns into a human carcass, and the town turns upon him, while the Shaykh’s cane wand puts out his eye. The vengeance of the old shaykh never ceases as he wanders from town to town with a black mark, and with each punishment further marring his fate.
The fifth brother concocts a potion of prideful visions from 100 dinars worth of perfumed glass bottles, which crash to his chagrin. An seemingly kind old woman leads him to the house of her mistress, a poisonous damsel married to a Nubian Ifrit. They lure the young man to death in a souterrain of horrors reeking of gore and treasures. Barely escaping death, he returns to the charnel pit to outwit the demonic Nubian, but finds the gold and damsel of his aspirations has a terrible cost. The sixth brother, Shakashik or many clamors, whose hunger surpasses the circumference of the globe, encounters a sadistic Wazir, and a trio of devious eunuchs to tempt him with a sumptuous repast of thin air. His empty pit of a stomach gnaws as the scheming Wazir tempts him with salivating depictions of the choicest epicurean delights. A battle of wits ensues for a comical bash of twists and turns, and a drunken carousing feast of twenty years. Despite his good fortune, a twist of fate lands him into the tent of a Bedouin bandit’s wife, where his life and his member hangs upon a blade.
As Al Samit, the slothful Barber reveals forgiveness by the Caliph, the Sultan of China reels with delight and pardons the Jewish physician, the Agnostic Tailor,the Nazarene Broker and the Muslim Reeve for the death of the Hunchback. There is more in store as the wily barber plays one more trick, and removes a fish bone from the Hunchback’s gullet. The Hunchback fool plays the ultimate trick upon them all in the exciting conclusion of Volume I of the Arabian Nights of Sir Richard Burton's "Arabian Nights Entertainments."
First Tale: Starring Sean Young As Al Samit The Barber the Silent Man. Edwyn Riong Tiong : Sultan of China. Patrick Seymour Nazarene Broker Kamran Nikhad Muslim Reeve and Caliph Tom Kerin Jewish Tailor Tailor Zade Patterson Richard Kingston Sworder Karen Hayman Dunyazad Margritte:Sheherazade Chris Thurman, Jester’s Hunchback, 1st Brother Terah Kuykendall -Servant of Landlord’s Wife Olivia Steele Landlord’s Wife Patrick Seymour: Landlord Sean Chiplock Kazi Second Tale: Older Woman: Danielle McRae Mistress of The House : Cassandra Wladyslava /Tailor’s Wife Brother: Richard Garner Jamaal Ephraim : Captain of the Guard Third Tale: 3rdbrother Warr
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