Review: Shen Wei Dance Arts Re- (I, II, III) / The Triptych

Photo: Eoin Carey

By Emma Caldwell
 
Shen Wei’s Re-Triptych takes the audience on a journey; throughout the course of the three part piece we are taken from snowy-topped Tibetan Himalayas, to a humid Cambodian jungle, finally ending up in a dizzying, digital modern-day China.
 
Re- (I) opens with the dancers sat in a circle around a huge confetti mandala, the sky backdrop gives the impression they are sat atop a mountain. Tibetan chanting accompanies their movements - the confetti sprays up and covers their bodies like snow-flakes as they swoop and soar like birds. The lights are clear and bright evoking the cool, crisp atmosphere of a winter’s day, and then becoming warm as though the sun is setting. This cycle continues and it feels as though we are witnessing the passing of many days. The pace slows and the lights come down, we have left Tibet.
 
As the lights come up on Re- (II) we see the dancers in a line, they start to move, seemingly chaotically, but all idiosyncratically connected. The soundtrack of Cambodian folk music soon gives way to the sounds of the jungle and the chirping and squawking of unknown creatures pierces my ears. The dancers’ movements become more synchronised and graceful; one breaks away from the rest of the group and staggers almost drunkenly. A voice speaking in an alien language is heard over the environmental sounds, I cannot understand what it says and I feel a sense of unease.
 
As the already low lights dim further, a naked body enters the stage. The background is now a withered tree root and the contorted figure glistens in the light mimicking this image and writhing and twisting. The dancer takes centre stage and rests in a bright white spotlight. String music fills the auditorium and lifts our spirits. More naked dancers appear and it is both a celebration and an exploration of the human form. The sight is arresting and beautiful, but also unsettling – the dancers’ faces are obscured by shadows and it is hard to tell where one body ends and another begins. The piece ends as the dancers slow to a stop, four spotlights bathe four bodies in blue light and a deep note rings out. The theatre feels dark and eerie, I feel unsettled.
 
The third and final part, Re- (III), turned out to be the most enjoyable for me. This piece attempts to explore China’s vast and rich cultural history, whilst looking forward to the place it holds in the digital age. It starts with the dancers marching back and forth across the stage, their feet pounding out a satisfying rhythm. As in the previous part a dancer breaks away from the group and gracefully sways and lurches to quirky string sounds.
 
The music, by Pulitzer Prizewinner David Lang, is both discordant and rhythmic, exploding with ever more complexity as the piece progresses. The pace slows then quickens up again, the dancers are now dressed in what looks like 80s workout gear - I like it! They are all seemingly dancing to their own song, electronic sounds are introduced to the music and the Playhouse feels alive with the energy on stage. The dancers contort themselves into one final shape as the music fades into the sound of a train moving along the tracks. This ending is poignant, Shen Wei has taken us on a journey, but it has not come to an end; we are all still travelling, moving forward into the future.
 
Re- (I, II, III) / The Triptych
 
Thursday 1 – Saturday 3 September
The Edinburgh Playhouse
 
Book now at eif.co.uk/retriptych
 
The Edinburgh International Festival runs from 12 August – 4 September. Browse and book online at eif.co.uk or call 0131 473 2000.

Preview: Contemporary Dance

Photo: cie ea sola

By Emma Caldwell
 

The final week of Festival 2011 sees two contemporary dance productions arrive in Edinburgh - Ea Sola’s Drought and Rain (re-creation 2011) and Shen Wei’s Re- (I, II, III) / The Triptych.
 

Ea Sola is a French Vietnamese choreographer and Drought and Rain explores consciousness, historical memory and the human cost of the Vietnam War. The piece is hard to define as dance because there is little movement, yet it cannot be called theatre because nobody speaks. This is performance art with cultural importance.
 

The piece was first performed in 1995 and featured a cast of elderly women who were once dancers in their youth. Because of the outbreak of war, they had to abandon their art and pick up guns to help fight for their country, only returning to dance when Ea Sola approached them to perform.
 

The incarnation of Drought and Rain performed at the Festival is a recreation of the original work. Many of the performers from the 1995 production are now too elderly to take part and several have passed away. So, although the work will still explore the same themes as the original, it features younger women with different memories of the war. These women did not fight; instead they consoled injured soldiers and sang to them at the front.
 

Drought and Rain promises deep insight into the history and sufferings of Vietnam, and demonstrates that although we all suffer, we can all learn to forgive.
 

Shen Wei’s Re-Triptych is a three-part contemporary dance piece which takes the audience on a journey through Tibet, Cambodia and China. After spending time travelling along the Silk Road, New York-based Chinese choreographer Shen Wei, drew inspiration from his experiences and created works telling stories of spiritual and geographical homecoming.
 

The first part, Re- (I), features traditional Tibetan chants and a giant mandala made of confetti. During the piece the mandala will be slowly and deliberately destroyed by the dancers, resulting in an ever-changing, unique visual spectacle. Festival audiences are offered the chance to become part of this performance by donating to the Confetti Mandala Appeal, which will support not only this production but the Edinburgh International Festival for years to come.
 

Re- (II) was inspired by Cambodia and includes indigenous folk music in its soundtrack. The influence of the country’s surroundings can be seen in the dancers’ movements as they recreate an atmospheric world of twisted knotted banyan trees and lost temples.
 

The final section, Re- (III) recalls Shen Wei’s home country, China, celebrating its vast and rich cultural history as well as looking forward to its place in the 21st-century and the future. This part features a score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, with ‘found music’ including recorded voices, folk music and environmental sounds, collected by Shen Wei from his travels. The electronic, contemporary soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to the dancers’ movements, which fizz with a frenetic energy and perfectly conjure up a buzzing and busy modern-day China.
 

Both of these original contemporary works promise to take us on a journey of discovery, interpreting unique cultures through movement and music and offering audiences a new perspective on the human condition.
 

Drought and Rain (re-creation 2011)
Ea Sola
 

Thursday 1 – Saturday 3 September
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
 

Book now at eif.co.uk/drought
 

Re- (I, II, III) / The Triptych
Shen Wei Dance Arts
 

Thursday 1 – Saturday 3 September
The Edinburgh Playhouse
 

Book now at eif.co.uk/retriptych
 

The Edinburgh International Festival runs from 12 August – 4 September. Browse and book online at eif.co.uk or call 0131 473 2000.

Review: The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan

Photo: Liu Haifa

By Alice Longhurst

How many Shakespeare performances do you think get put on in this country every year? Far too many to count of course, but each is subtly different, ranging from stiff traditional stagings to loose contemporary interpretations. As our favourite playwright, and a keystone of our culture, he is a constantly familiar presence, like an old amiable uncle everyone talks to, but never takes the time to fully get to know and understand. This is probably our main problem with interpreting Shakespeare, we think we know him so well, and thus we do not make the effort to dig more deeply.

A possible antidote to this over-familiarity can be found when Shakespeare is translated into other cultures, resulting in a fusion of his timeless tales with striking performance traditions from other countries. The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan, a Peking Opera version of Hamlet, which closes tonight at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh is one such example. This performance provides a beautiful and unusual interpretation, combining a typically Chinese performance method with a European-based story which actually began life as a Viking folk tale.

One of the most noticeable differences about this Chinese version is how it renders Hamlet comical when in this country we usually identify the story as a tragedy. There are many humorous touches, including the dwarf prime minister who goes about on his knees, and even the final death scene which is made amusing by his odd manner of collapse. This is a clear example of how such different performances can challenge audiences to look again at their bard and appreciate new ways of understanding his work.

The production is exquisite, showcasing the distinct elements of Peking Opera. Royal characters wear heavy elaborate costumes with wonderful headdresses, and have bold painted faces which obscure their human identity. Adding further meaning to the finery is the traditional Chinese colour vocabulary; yellow is for kings and queens, while white indicates youth and is worn by Zi Dan and Yin Le, his Ophelia.

The acting itself is very formal, conforming to traditional conventions on vocal roles, graceful ritual dance, and fighting scenes. Tension is added to the action on stage by harsh percussion pieces using cymbals, wood clappers and drums, while the orchestra play typically Chinese instruments like the moon-lute, or zhongruan, and jinghu, a two-stringed fiddle which is covered with snakeskin.

Although the singing is in Mandarin, the narrative is explained by the English surtitles which cleverly convey much of the poetry of the original. Intriguingly, the use of a foreign language actually makes Hamlet more accessible. Forcing the audience to really focus on reading the translation and to pay careful attention to the happenings on stage brings a deeper understanding of both the story and the human emotions that lie behind it. The Prince of Zi Dan is at once an impeccably beautiful production by a talented opera troupe and an invitation for Western audiences to look afresh at a work they think they know so well.

The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan

Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe

Friday 19 – Sunday 21 August

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

eif.co.uk/revenge

The Edinburgh International Festival runs from 12 August – 4 September. Browse the programme and book online at eif.co.uk or call 0131 473 2000.

Continental Shifts: All the World’s a Stage

By Alice Longhurst

Today, Shakespeare’s plays are performed all over the world in a diverse range of languages, styles and forms and the global artistic fusions the bard invites are well represented at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.

The programme boasts several Shakespeare-inspired productions – the dramatic Korean TheTempest, a solo King Lear performed in Mandarin by Taiwanese actor Wu Hsing-kuo and the Chinese Peking Opera version of Hamlet, entitled The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan.

To accompany these performances the Festival brought together Korean director of The Tempest Tae-Suk Oh, the Chinese Shakespeare expert Alexander C Y Huang and theatre critic Michael Billington to discuss the significance of these unique productions at an event entitled All the World’s a Stage.

As one of the world’s favourite playwrights, the relevance of discussing how Shakespeare can be fused with other traditions is obvious. Indeed the history of exporting Shakespeare, Huang explained, goes all the way back to the playwright’s own lifetime. In 1610 Hamlet was taken to Jakarta, then part of the Dutch West Indies.

Since then the plays have spread across the world, the stories intermingling with local cultures, reaching new people and societies and being used by them to express their own feelings and troubles. Master Oh explained that as The Tempest is not based on historical events or specific myths it provided the ideal play to help him encourage forgiveness in Korea, where he feels growing hatred, and to allow him to convince his domestic audiences of the need to preserve the beauty of the Korean language which is currently threatened by technological advances.

So what can we in the west learn from these unfamiliar performances? The panel seemed to agree that we know Shakespeare almost too well. Using the motifs and methods of a completely different culture can bring a distance from the work and force us to see it in a different way. While we may not understand the meanings of the music, costumes and symbolism used in productions like The Tempest, there is much we can gain by being forced to use our imaginations and to really think for ourselves about the significance of the tales played out before us.

This insightful discussion was part of the Festival’s Continental Shifts series, in association with the British Council, which bring together a variety of performers, writers, academics and cultural specialists. Forthcoming events include Global Philosophies on Monday 22 August when Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre and philosophers Dr Richard Holloway and Tu Weiming will explore the changing face of world religion, two discussions of India’s position on the world stage on Saturday 27 August and two events focusing on China – How Chinese Money is Changing the World and Contemporary Chinese thought.

The Continental Shifts series is presented in association with the British Council and all events take place in The Hub, Castlehill, Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh International Festival runs from 12 August – 3 September. Browse and book online at eif.co.uk or call 0131 473 2000.

All the World’s a Stage
Monday 15 August, 2.30pm

Global Philosophies
Monday 22 August, 2.30pm

How Chinese Money is Changing the World
Wednesday 24 August, 2.30pm

India
Saturday 27 August, 2.30pm

A Changing India
Saturday 27 August, 5pm

Contemporary Chinese Thought
Monday 29 August, 2.30pm

At home in China - Festival 2011 theme launched in Beijing and Shanghai

Pudong from the Bund, Shanghai

Beijing is wonderfully stylish and eclectic, teeming with life, has absolutely bags of character, and is very, very welcoming. Since arriving on Sunday we have met so many people keen to engage with the Festival and Scotland and it is at times like this that you have to be convinced you have the best job in the world. Jonathan met with a string of media over Sunday and Monday all of whom asked interesting questions throwing up all sorts of avenues of conversation. Then there was a buzzing reception last night that the British Ambassador and British Council here threw in honour of the Festival and its developing relationship with China with more media, representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, artists and various interested businesses in attendance. It has been an intense couple of days and I am sure Jonathan is very happy to have a couple of hours off from the media mayhem this morning.

Today it is Jackie, our Marketing and Communications Director’s turn as she steels herself to speed date 60 tour operators this afternoon as part of VisitBritain’s delegation at the China International Travel Mart. No mean feat and just the first of several days here and in Shanghai which will offer lots of opportunities to shout about the Festival to those who can help boost Chinese visitor numbers into the future.

Meanwhile I’m put the finishing touches to our media event in Shanghai tomorrow where we’ll do it all again!

Tomorrow afternoon Jonathan and Mr Sun of the Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe will sign a letter of agreement before posing for photos with the ornately dressed performers in their full glittering get-up. I wonder if there’ll be a spare pair of their fabulous platform shoes kicking around… just to help me get a better photo!

- Susie Burnet