THE AVIARY GATE

Mystery, suspense, and romance are important elements of this production, but it's sensuality that predominates as Hickman takes us deep into the politics of the sixteenth-century Topkapi Palace harem in Istanbul. There are two plots, the 1599 romance between Celia Lamprey, shipwrecked and turned into a harem concubine, and her English merchant suitor, and a much weaker present-day plot that finds Elizabeth Staveley driven to understand Celia's history. The latter story fades as Josephine Bailey leads us through the intricacies of harem life. She metes out sensory details with an elegance that gives power to scents and sensations. Employing varying emotional tones and a variety of accents, she helps listeners understand the secrecy, subversiveness, and survival mechanisms of the clashing harem women. S.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2008]