KING LEAR. Tour to 9 December.
Tour
KING LEAR
by William Shakespeare translated by Zhu Sheng Hao adapted by David Tse Ka-Shing
Yellow Earth Theatre Company with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre Tour to 9 December 2006
Runs: 2hr One interval
Review: Jan Pick: 16 November at The Cube Stratford-upon-Avon
Shakespeare Shanghaied.
King Lear becomes a Chinese business tycoon in 2020, with a global business empire rum from a Shanghai where corporate power and money protect the elite. Videoconferencing in his penthouse over the division of his ‘kingdom’, his two elder daughters flatter him for their share, but Lear’s rage at perceived loss of face as his youngest, English-speaking Cordelia, refuses to play his game precipitates the family catastrophe. When Lear is scorned by the Chinese-speaking daughters he favoured he’s forced to realize his ‘blindness’ in ignoring Cordelia’s integrity and love.
Heavily cut, this co-production between Yellow Earth and Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre still packs a powerful emotional punch. With four actors speaking predominantly in Mandarin Chinese and four in English, doubling and redoubling roles, the play gathers pace and power. It’s a tribute to the cast and director David Tse Ka-Shing that the two companies’ languages and acting styles merge seamlessly. Dual-language surtitles on a flat-screen tone-in with the silvery-metal set, some of its panels clear, some frosted, allowing back-projections of city offices or bleak open land in this futuristic world where swords seem as natural as mobile phones.
Ably assisted by He Ju’s loyal Kent (adding occasional humour to the grimness) Zhou Ye Mang makes an impressive Lear, his innate dignity gradually crumbling to madness and despair. There’s no Fool, but his role’s re-created as Lear's subconscious by a white-clad chorus, moving behind him in the storm scene, chanting wisps of his observations as he grapples with his misjudgments.
Nina Kwok doubles a warmly sympathetic Cordelia and a spiky, subversive female Oswald, allying with anyone who’ll advance her cause. Zhang Lu’s Goneril, a glossily expensive business executive, and Xie Li’s vampish, flirty Regan with a nice line in sadism, are frighteningly convincing. The (offstage) blinding of David Yip’s honest old Gloucester is truly nasty. Matt McCooey’s a sexily predatory Edmund while Daniel York successfully juggles the sinister gangster Cornwall with an earnest, decent Edgar.
Tse adds ingredients of cultural alienation, loss of language, and therefore communication between generations, to Shakespeare’s tragedy, in this final production in the RSC’s Cube.
King Lear: Zhou Ye Mang
Gloucester/Albany: David Yip
Edgar/Cornwall: Daniel York
Edmund: Matt McCooey
Goneril: Zhang Lu
Regan: Xie Li
Cordelia/Oswald: Nina Kwok
Kent: He Ju
Director: David Tse Ka-Shing
Designer: Sang Qi
Lighting: Doug Kuhrt
Video Designer: Li Ning
Music: Wang Jiwei
Costume: Dong Hu University
Assistatn director: Jonathan Man
2006-11-19 12:12:31