Theatre review: The Arabian Nights, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh

Seven years ago this month the death of a street vendor in Tunisia, who’s stall was confiscated by the authorities, triggered the wave of rebellions known as the Arab Spring. So there is a powerful resonance behind playwright Suhayla El-Bushra’s decision to open her new Lyceum stage version of The Arabian Nights with the destruction of a street market, and the arrest of all its traders, by the cruel Sultan of Baghdad; a sense of the bustling, hustling street life of the region, with all its wild, rude and magical stories, constantly confronting harsh and divisive rulers, and sometimes – just possibly – persuading them to change.