NewsAboutProductionsPressContactPeople and their passions fly off the page in Jason Grote’s dynamic, intellectually agile 1001, a postmodern epic about the cultural narratives that shape our lives. In the production’s opening sequence, an Arab woman detonates a bomb in Times Square by opening an antique copy of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights…. and in less capable hands it might seem bookish. But Ethan McSweeny’s in-the-round staging for Page 73 Productions lays a bright thread through 1001’s labyrinthine twists, with help from a crackerjack design team and cast.Adam Feldman, Time Out NY
Ethan McSweeny's kinetic direction keeps the piece, moving in a quick and lucid way, as it ranges from Sinbad's tale to Hitchcock's "Vertigo" to Dahna and Alan on a visit to Gaza… there is a sure sense of how to turn literary traditions into active, theatrical storytelling.Caryn James, New York Times
Ethan McSweeny, recent director of the successful 100 Saints You Should Know, has now turned his attention to 1001 Arabian nights you should know, the New York premiere of 1001 by Jason Grote. This entertaining, politically relevant spin on the Arabian Nights uses a stories within stories approach that explores the possibility of the healing redemption of a good narrative. Confronting Kipling's assertion that "east is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet," Grote has west meet east to find that they share a common story. The question posed: What will the east and west do with this common story?Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up
A script this frenetic has dangerous possibilities, but in the hands of Ethan McSweeny, the pulse and momentum remain controlled but engaging. McSweeny has located creative solutions to occasionally difficult or ambiguous stage directions, helping to give shape to a piece which otherwise could easily become too amorphous in its breadth.Kestryl Lowery, Old Stage and Cinema.com
Sets - Rachel Hauck
Lights - Tyler Micoleau
Costumes - Murell Horton
Sound - Lindsay Jones