The Crucible by Arthur Miller; Zhang Dasheng; 4.

48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane; Xiong Yuanwei;

King Lear by William Shakespeare; David Tse Ka-Shing; The Scholar and the Executioner by
Huang Weiruo; Guo Xiaonan; Crows and Sparrows by Zhao Huanan; Yang Xinwei
Review by: Claire Conceison
Theatre Journal, Vol. 59, No. 3, Theatre and Translation (Oct., 2007), pp. 491-493
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25070071 .
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 REVIEW /
PERFORMANCE 491

enthusiasm for their art in Damascus

today, though
judging from this festival, reports of their theatre's
demise have been greatly exaggerated.

EDWARD ZTTER
New York
University

THE CRUCIBLE. By Arthur Miller. Directed by

Zhang Dasheng. 4.48 PSYCHOSIS. By Sarah
Kane. Directed Yuanwei. KING
by Xiong
LEAR. ByWilliam Shakespeare. Directed by
David Tse Ka-Shing. THE SCHOLAR AND
THE EXECUTIONER. By Huang Weiruo.
Directed by Guo Xiaonan. CROWS AND Image from the poster advertising the Shanghai
SPARROWS. By Zhao Huanan. Directed by Dramatic Arts Centre production of Sarah Kane's
4.48 Psychosis. Photo: Zhou Bing.
Yang Xinwei. Huang Zuolin Festival, Shang
hai Dramatic Arts Centre, Shanghai, People's
Republic of China. October 2006.
tural Revolution (which had concluded with Mao's
death in 1976), the intended in the 2006 pro
target
24 October 2006 marked the one hundredth an duction was unclear.
niversary of the birth of Huang Zuolin (1906-1994),
a
widely considered China's most influential theatre Defying clarity in more deliberate sense, Sarah
Kane's 4.48 Psychosis seems at first glance a curi
practitioner and theorist of the twentieth century as
ous choice to include in a festival
well as a noted film director. To honor the occasion, honoring Huang
the Shanghai Dramatic Zuolin, who never knew her work and had little in
Arts Centre (SDAC) offered a
common with her a residence in
slate of productions in October and November that beyond prolonged
reflected international and experimental the United Kingdom during his youth. However,
Huang's
vision. A full-day on 23 October director Xiong Yuanwei's choice of the play's com
symposium and a

gala on the master's (which in plex material and (for Chinese audiences) unfamiliar
concluding birthday
cluded a variety of brief performances and bestowal style, along with the unwavering project support of
of the annual com SDAC administrators Yang Shaolin, Yu Rongjun,
Huang Zuolin Awards) further
and Li Shengyin, are reminiscent of Huang's
memorated his life and achievements. willing
ness to introduce local audiences to new ideas and
In honor of Huang's 1981 produc from the West during his own lifetime. Xiong
path-breaking plays
tion of Arthur Miller's
The Crucible, his grandson waited for two years for seasoned actress Tian Shui
Zhang Dasheng restaged the play, featuring real-life to become willing and available to perform the play,
spouses Lu Liang and Song Yining in the roles of in the production's debut conveniently co
resulting
John and Elizabeth Proctor. The mixed performance inciding with the Huang commemoration.
aesthetic (contemporary meets Puritan), juxtaposing
An innovative set
Abigail's peers in trendy warm-up suits with Proc design by Sang Qi featured doz
tor and Reverend ens of white balloons above the playing
Hale in apparent period costume, suspended
a somewhat area, a low platform with a cham
projected disjointed feel, reflected in simple Plexiglas
ber on one end and a from
the actors' capable, yet uneven, Al long rope suspended
performances.
as a film director above on the other. Tian moved these
though trained (at the University freely among
of Chicago as well as in China), spaces, including several scenes in
Zhang introduced claustrophobic
some creative the chamber that manifested the intense angst Kane
stage conventions: the actresses
play
in this final
ing the crazed young girls, for instance, came on explored play that preceded her suicide.

before Tian adeptly handled the rhythms of Kane's

stage the beginning of the third act and ad poetic
libbed as themselves language with its balance of grit and humor. A sup
outside of their roles, sharing
plementary cast of two young male actors dressed in
contrasting opinions about the likelihood of such a
bizarre phenomenon black functioned as a pair, the voices of
occurring today, with the au representing
doctors and others with whom the main character
dience merely listening in on their conversation as
interacts in her internal) dialogue.
they reassembled from intermission. While (predominantly
Huang
In order to enhance the Verfremdung of the
Zuolin's original 1981 had shifted Miller's quality
staging
veiled condemnation of the McCarthy-era production concept, Xiong and Sang set up bleach
thinly
ers on sides of the playing
"witch hunts" to a critique of the decade-long Cul opposite space and intro

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492 / Theatre Journal

Hao (Scholar) the ensemble in The Scholar and the Executioner. Photo: Zu Zhongren.
Ping accompanied by

duced the convention of audience members well as the confusing (and ultimately comic) ar
sitting
on red cushions. ray of accents in the less-talented British actors'
simple
to speak Chinese. Renowned actor Zhou
attempts
Another quite different offering from the United
Yemang's Lear proved compelling and tender, and
was the Sino-British coproduction of King
Kingdom it was unfortunate to see Zhou in such a
trapped
Lear (reviewed at length by Alexander Huang in this
uncomfortable situation. In this and many
clearly
issue). The project appropriately echoed Huang's other ill-informed choices (such as a vernacular
efforts to collaborate with foreign theatre practitio Chinese translation that stood in jarring contrast
ners in his lifelong endeavor to promote increased
to the poetic English version, and moments of dab
mutual understanding and artistic interaction be
in classical opera and martial arts influences
bling
tween China and the West. Thus itwas particularly
that rang of Continental Chinoiserie), Tse revealed
unfortunate that the Yellow Earth Theatre'sproduc that his target audience was not the SDAC patrons
tion (conceived and directed by David Tse) was the
I sat among, but rather those of the six UK venues
least successful offering of the festival. Plagued by the production would tour to after its Shanghai
and cultural misunderstandings on the
linguistic As a result, the local audience
premiere. neglected
part of its British participants, the project is the
offered lukewarm response to the production, and
latest in a long tradition of foreign collaborations
some collaborators on the Chinese side, though
that reflect a lack of cultural knowledge and prepa
a wonderful to subsequently
given opportunity
ration on the part of its creators. Expectations for
tour the United Kingdom, did not experience the
cultural were high in this particular case
sensitivity "warm fuzzies" of intercultural collaboration that
a
because the visiting partner was diasporic Asian
their often of when reflect
foreign partners speak
theatre company in intercultural con
specializing
ing on maiden China experiences.
cept-driven productions.
Shanghai audience members
who lasted through
This featured a bicultural
production bilingual, both acts of Lear (many left at intermission, nodded
aesthetic set in a futuristic Shanghai. Unfortunately, off, or text-messaged throughout the second act) and
Tse decided to require all actors (four local SDAC returned to the theatre that same week to see The
actors and four British Yellow Earth Theatre actors of
Scholar and the Executioner (Xiucai yu guizishou) were
norma
Asian descent) to occasionally speak in their The award-winning about
richly rewarded. script,
tive tongue, revealing the limited English-language
two unfortunates thrown off their career tracks
of the otherwise Chinese actors as
capacity superb

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 REVIEW /
PERFORMANCE 493

when the imperial examination system and standard would have been exciting (whereas The Crucible has
execution are banned at the end of the Qing been in both professional and educational
practices staged
was cleverly realized in recent years).
dynasty, by director Guo Xia settings Excerpts of several of his
onan, inspiringly interpreted by young actors Hao plays directed by the many local practitioners he

Ping, Tian Rui, and Wang Yinan, and brilliantly inspired would have been another warmly received
enhanced by Huang Haiwei's hand-carved wooden approach. However, the SDAC chose instead to em
masks worn the accompanying ensemble. The the spirit of Huang's vision in its choices for
by body
production thereby manifested another of Huang the festival, emphasizing inter- and intracultural
Zuolin's lifelong artistic and theoretical pursuits: productions and the cutting-edge ideas of Huang's
the fusion of contemporary international theatre fellow theatre visionaries from local prac
ranging
aesthetics with traditional Chinese national forms. titioners such as Guo Xiaonan to foreigners like
In this case, the use of hand-carved wooden masks Schechner and Kane.
a dimension
inspired by Italian commedia added
SDAC also generated several supplementary ma
of intercultural contrast to the Chinese late-impe
terials in conjunction with the festival, including two
rial/early twentieth-century atmosphere of the story,
edited book volumes (one of collected short writ
as well as
depth and beauty that complemented the
ings by Huang himself, and one of collected essays
play's comic flavor.
about Huang by various scholars and artists) and a
While this latest spoken drama directed by Guo to be available on DVD.
forthcoming documentary
Xiaonan joined the Huang Zuolin Festival in Shang The subsequent issue of SDAC's seasonal journal
hai, his three superb collaborations with the Zheji featured the remarks of all speakers at the sympo

ang Little Hundred Flowers Yueju Troupe of Hang sium, in which Iwas honored to participate. At the
zhou were staged at the Capital Theatre in Beijing. In symposium
a
lively discussion of Huang's theory
addition, the Chinese Theatre Association organized of Xieyi xijuguan (Xieyi concept of theatre) ensued,
a the young director's criti with such as Lin Kehuan and Sun Huizhu
symposium assessing experts
cally acclaimed career, attended by China's leading making meaningful contributions. Particularly
mov
theatre scholars, critics, and administrators. (Previ were the comments of
ing Huang's contemporaries
ous had recently been held on directors such as Qiao Ji and Huang as well as
symposia Zongjiang,
Lu Ang, Zha Mingzhe, and Wang Xiaoying.) the introductory remarks of his daughter Huang
an accomplished film director who stated
Shuqin,
The first official activity of
the Huang Zuolin
that her father?a man of few words but abundant
Festival?a lecture by US scholar/director Richard
talent?has always been her role model.
Schechner?overlapped with Schechner's partici
pation in a conference at the neighboring A self-proclaimed (and acquaintance) of
Shang disciple
hai Theatre Academy. Although not speaking spe George Bernard Shaw, Huang Zuolin assisted in

cifically about Huang, Schechner raised engaging the founding of a film company in 1946 and of the

questions about the social responsibility of theatre Shanghai People's Art Theatre in 1950,
subsequently
that were relevant to Huang
throughout his life. serving as its and honor
vice-president, president,
The festival's final production was ary president his lifetime. the
actually staged during Introducing
inmid-November, after the symposium and evening dramatic theories of both Stanislavski and Brecht

gala that concluded the October events. A revival of to China during the 1940s and 1950s and directing
an old local favorite closed Huang's his final production (Zhao Yaomin's Alarm Clock)
appropriately
commemoration with a dose of nostalgia from his in 1990, Huang's of contributions in
half-century
early days in Shanghai: the stage adaptation (in theatre production, education, administration, and
local huajixi farce style using Shanghai dialect) of theory earned him the well-deserved nickname,
the 1949 classic film Crows and Sparrows (Wuya yu "China's Man of the Theatre." As evidenced by
maque). The tale of the struggle between Shanghai those who gathered for the commemorative festi
tenants and their exploitative landlord during the val and he is certainly missed
symposium, though
final days of Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist govern never
forgotten.
ment, Crows and Sparrows was marketed as an "Old
flavor comedy"
CLAIRE CONCEISON
Shanghai by SDAC, who first staged
the play in July 2006. Tufts University

Some audience members seemed disappointed

that the festival did not include more
of
restagings
a new
Huang's key works. Indeed, production of
Brecht's Mother and Her Children or Gali
Courage
leo, which have not been in China since
performed
Huang produced them in 1959 and 1978 respectively,

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