The reviewers are Kylie Eastley and Anica Boulanger-Mashberg.
King Lear
Contemporary Legend Theatre
Princess Theatre, Launceston; Theatre Royal, Hobart
2 April, Launceston, 4-5 April, Hobart
Fit for the Princess
In a rare opportunity for Launceston audiences, one of China’s most celebrated performers, Wu Hsing-kuo, melds traditional Chinese opera with William Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, to deliver a dynamic and original production.
Wu Hsing-kuo takes on all ten roles in this adaptation, changing in costume and character. His acting, singing and dancing performance relies on versatile gestures as he uses his movements and facial expressions to represent the story. Wu is commanding in all roles, especially as King Lear, with the Chinese-style courtly costume adding to the spectacle.
King Lear is the story of a father who is desperate for the love of his youngest daughter, Cordelia. While his other daughters, Goneril and Regan, shower him with compliments, Cordelia disappoints with her silence, and is banished, setting in train great disappointment, treachery and despair.
Wu’s solo performance is supported by a troupe of accomplished musicians playing traditional Chinese string and percussion instruments. Coupled with key dramatic lighting and sound effects, the score also hits some innovative notes and supports an impressive production overall. Shakespearean humour and tragedy translate remarkably well in Mandarin (with English surtitles) and the unique mannerisms of Chinese opera.
Produced by China’s Contemporary Legend Theatre, King Lear will conclude its tour in Hobart on the 5th April at Theatre Royal, as part of Ten Days on the Island: www.tendaysontheisland.com
Kylie E. Eastley is a freelance arts consultant and producer based in Hobart.
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King Lear
Contemporary Legend Theatre
Princess Theatre
2 April (Launceston), 4-5 April (Hobart)
Where is Lear?
This adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear is challenging for an audience unfamiliar with traditional Chinese opera. The source text itself is not an easy place to begin, and in this interpretation, director and performer Wu Hsing-kuo has no intention of simplifying Shakespeare. Not only are we negotiating Shakespeare’s complex story, but also Wu’s own intricate narrative, and the demanding experience of absorbing this cross-cultural theatre work.
For the first act, Wu introduces us to his Lear – a dominating character who draws on the bold, heightened style of traditional Chinese opera. This Lear is often quite a comic figure, although the audience seemed reluctant to laugh, uncertain about the tone and cues for this particular cultural theatricality. The performance, reflecting Wu’s extensive training, is part song, part speech, part dance, part acrobatics, and part martial arts. The text itself (a hybrid contemporary/poetic reduction of Shakespeare’s text) is sung and spoken in Mandarin, and surtitled. In a venue the size of the Princess Theatre, this really requires two sets of eyes: one to read the text and one to concentrate on Wu’s performance.
After the interval, Wu moves on to sketch other characters from Lear, including Lear’s daughters, who allow Wu’s comic charisma to shine through. Other notable characters are Lear’s ally, Gloucester, and his two sons, through whom Wu articulates a touching story of regret and familial conflict. The various characters allow Wu to show off his considerable and varied skills. But at the same time such a multiplicity of narratives, filtered and obfuscated through the conventions of an unfamiliar theatrical style, pace, and language, is overwhelming.
It is very difficult to find Shakespeare’s play inside this ‘adaptation’. The production might make more sense, and generate less anxiety, if it were described as a response to Lear and titled accordingly, rather than professing to retell the play. This raises an important question: what constitutes an adaptation? In this case, not much of Shakespeare’s language remains (even in translation), and large amounts of the narrative have not made it into the production. This is not necessarily problematic, as these absences are filled with other things: rich costumes, virtuosic martial arts displays, and a dramatic representation conveying Wu’s own relationship with Lear. However, the question still stands, when so little of Shakespeare’s Lear is accessible here, is it really an adaptation? Or has it become altogether another entity?
The most engaging section is the third act, in which Wu strips away the other characters leaving a version of himself, the actor and individual, who articulates his own connection to Lear. This makes me wish that there was less Shakespeare in this production and more Wu, because in these moments where he is most grounded, the performance is compelling, and overrides the potential intimidation of the cultural boundary.
Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a Hobart-based performer and writer.
