‘Slave of Love’ Tells an Imaginative Story

Robert Harders’ “The Demented Slave of Love,” now receiving its premiere by Playwrights’ Arena at the McCadden Place Theatre, is imaginative and rigorously executed. However, this “deconstructed” fable, based on Burton’s “Arabian Nights,” waxes overlong, and the much-vaunted iconoclasm of director Robert A. Prior, who staged last season’s gender-bending “The Importance of Being Earnest” at Glaxa, is in short supply.

Prior himself plays Dahnash, an ifrit (powerful genie) transported with forbidden love for Emina (Candace Reid), a beautiful human princess. Dahnash’s female counterpart, Maymunah (Diane Robinson), another ifrit, has simultaneously fallen for Kamar (Gabriel Romero), a handsome human prince. To the fury of Ralph, the Almighty (a whimsical Tim Bennett), the ifrits meddle with the plot in the Book of Life by bringing Emina and Kamar together. It’s love at first sight, until Arno (Bennett Schneider), Kamar’s scheming brother, gains possession of Dahnash’s lamp. The bedeviled lovers must undergo painful trials before love triumphs in this well-told but surprisingly standard fairy tale--an unexpectedly tame departure for the typically outre Prior.

Prior designed the set and superlative costumes. John Lacques punctuates the action with live percussion. Among the able cast, Robinson, who has the comical instincts of a female Bert Lahr, is a standout.

*

* “The Demented Slave of Love,” McCadden Place Theatre, 1157 North McCadden Place, Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 20. $15. (323) 960-7756. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.