MR CHINA'S SON. London to 10 March.

London

MR CHINA'S SON
by Mark Down

Blind Summit Theatre Company at the Pleasance Theatre To 10 March 2002
Tues-Sat 8pm Sun 6pm
Runs 1hr 25min No interval

TICKETS 020 7609 1800
Review Timothy Ramsden 17 February

Blind Summit make surprisingly moving drama from a source off the beaten track. After this show, bad acting should never be called wooden. Whether the model characters in Mr China's Son are wood or plastic they give extremely expressive performances.

They have help – up to four black-garbed humans moving their limbs and neck. But the immense impact lies in the figures' emotional neutrality. A human actor would use their personality to seek out emotional responses from the audience. Here the operators are focused entirely on the technique of correctly moving their character-figure.

And that figure is dead material, moving because it evokes feeling in the audience through imitation. We are not responding to a person; the force of the situation arises through our direct response, and is stronger for it.

The story's based on a real life. Framed by an Englishman's letters to his girlfriend, it tells the story of 70 year old He Liyi; as an intelligent youth he was caught up in the Communist and Cultural Revolutions. Witnessing his father's execution, separated from women he loved, forced to confess his errors before the Red Guard, imprisoned – before finally being free to do the job he loved, teaching English. In which capacity he wrote a simple letter for assistance to the BBC. And, now running a backpackers' café, he meets people such as the letter writer.

At times the piece falls into the devised and visual theatre trap of discursiveness. A rough guide to Chinese history is fun, and ends with a spectacular model building of the Yanz-tze dam, but it is a diversion from the main point. Yet the piece scores high for its intensely beautiful sections; He Liyi playfully cavorts with his (human actor) father until a shot rings out. The 'father' lies still, then, out of role, the actor moves from under his son, leaving the figure lost in mid-air, a poignant, sudden image of childhood loss.

Or there's the operators apparent struggle with the He Liyi figure as he's dragged off to jail; following his public self-denunciation. Moments like these show a silent figure can speak volumes.

Word of Mao: Li-Leng Au
Girlfriend: Cassandra Friend
Traveller: Colin Hoult
Puppeteer: Charlie Llewelyn-Smith
Voice of Peking: Ernesto Tomasini
Father: Tom Yang

Director: Mark Down
Designer: Nick Barnes
Lighting: Neil Austin
Sound: Andy White. Ernesto Tomasini

2002-02-27 07:32:35