http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/thearts/story/0,2276,61021,00.html
October 19, 2002
Painting a thousand words
Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress takes a compelling look at the
formidable dowager in a stylish production. PARVATHI NAYAR finds out
FORBIDDEN. It's a word with such dangerous power to entice. Forbidden
fruit is more delicious, the forbidden word more potent, the forbidden
act more desirable. Surely, then, behind the gates of the Forbidden City,
the secrets are darker, the betrayals sharper, the emotions stronger and
the lives, well, larger than life?
These are the places that Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress would
like to go via the highly stylised and bold-strokes vehicle of the musical.
Co-produced by the Singapore Repertory Theatre and the Esplanade, City was
a much-awaited - and sold out - world premiere at the Esplanade's opening
festival. The story is gripping, not least because of the lurid myths
surrounding its protagonist Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), as the
dragon lady, the witch of China, the murderess of her own son.
But what makes the musical doubly compelling is that it's based on new
research that looked beyond the myth and cast doubt on all the
preconceptions about Cixi. City is a tripartite construction by Dick Lee,
Stephen Clark and Steven Dexter. The creators have said they selectively
read from the reams of material written about Cixi - including the account
by Katharine Carl who painted the Empress, With the Empress Dowager, and
Pearl S Buck's biography Imperial Women.
The resulting product is a musical that takes the literary liberty of
compression and invention, but is mostly based on fact and factual
characters. It covers some 50 turbulent years of Chinese history including
the Hundred Days Reform of 1898 and the Boxer Uprising of 1900.
The catalyst of the tale is Kate Carl (Leigh McDonald), the artist summoned
to the court of the Empress Dowager (Blossom Lam) to paint her portrait.
In the best conventions of a portrait capturing the personality behind the
persona, Kate gets the Empress to open up about her life - which forms the
bulk of the musical's flashback narrative. We see Cixi's brief spell as the
Emperor's favourite; the birth of her son; her uncertain fate against an
implacable foe, the emperor's brother Prince Tun (played by Adrian Pang,
who attacks his role as evil manipulator with persuasive onstage relish).
Men, actually - and journalists - don't come out of the story very well;
Kate entrusts the Dowager's secrets to an English journalist, George
Morrison (Hal Fowler). The tale of strong women weakened by loving foolishly,
repeats itself.
High drama and high emotion. Well, the musical does try to have something
for everybody including humour provided by the record keepers (Hossan Leong,
Sebastian Tan); set pieces of colour and song like the choosing of Yehenara
by the Emperor. Does the ending have enough bite? It's open to debate;
but, politically incorrect or not, for an Asian audience there's a huge
well of post-Colonial angst into which it taps with great impact.
Certainly, the piece is a tad raw at the edges. Some of the problems lie
in the plot points - emerging from painting Cixi in too-sympathetic light.
Undoubtedly, if she'd stayed Empress for 50 years, she must have been a
pretty formidable lady. We needed to see some of this strength - whether
positively as someone who is a survivor, or negatively as a manipulator
of skill. In the musical, she is mostly the misunderstood pawn.
Some of the choreography and sound needed fine-tuning too. While most of
the solos rang clear, for example, the ensemble pieces were overwhelmed
in places by the percussion. The first half of City was tight, compelling
and moved forward briskly; the second half, however was left with almost
too much to accomplish and show.
The two woman playing Cixi - Kit Chan as the beautiful young Yehenara and
Blossom Lam as the Dowager - were a pleasure to watch. Dexter's directorial
decision of showing them onstage together very often was a clever device;
it bookended a journey without needing to resort to clumsy exposition.
The staging of the musical was stylish. Those who came nervous about
overblown Orientalism on stage needn't have worried - the piece was
defined by clean lines, sharp lighting and careful accents of lantern
or gilded throne - not a fan or lion dance in sight.
Francis O'Connor's set was a classy combination of utilitarianism and
elegant, reflective floor. Sandpapering the rough spots is part of the
creation of any new work, and certainly true for something as large-scale
and ambitious as City. But even as it is, there's great promise, for it's
a strong story, well presented. Empress Dowager, the Little Orchid, the
Dragon Lady, Yehenara: whatever the truth behind the woman of many names,
she makes for one heck of a compelling subject.
Till Oct 19; at the Theatre, Esplanade; for details visit www.esplanade.com
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