Don Rechtman

RECENTLY I had the privilege to “participate” in a futuristic live multimedia adaptation of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) playwright Tang Xianzu’s most famous drama “The Peony Pavilion.”

Known as the “Shakespeare From East,” Tang wrote quite a few great plays that are still performed and read today.

I say “participate,” because to view the entire performance, the audience had to change scenes by walking around the one hectare artificial lake that hosted the scenes of the action.

Staged in Tang’s hometown of Fuzhou in Jiangxi Province, the lake itself as stage is a modern marvel: walkable paths covered with just enough water to blend in with the rest of the lake, huge pedestals that rose several meters out of the ground with performers standing on them as they were elevated and retracted; multiple laser and stage lights occasionally conflated with fire and fog and projected images of performers that seemed to dance in the fog and spray of water; and a magnificent sound system that followed the action as it moved on and around the lake. Costuming was amazing, and considering the size of the stage, the lip-syncing, which was excellently executed, is quite forgivable.

Published in 1617, the masterpiece depicts a love story between Du Liniang (first a ghost, later miraculously revived by her true love) and Liu Mengmei who overcome near-tragic difficulties. It is one of four stories from Tang’s collection “Linchuan si meng” (“The Four Dreams in the Jade Tea Hall”), and perhaps the best known. The original version performed as Kunqu opera had 55 scenes and could take as long as 22 hours; although it contains the entire story, this version lasts but one hour.

The pre-show includes an acted-out explanation of the plot including projected Chinese and English subtitles; although the entire play is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles, the intro is sufficient for non-Chinese speakers to understand the plots. The performance itself was mostly dialogs, but did include some traditional opera singing, although accompanied by Western instruments.

The show titled “Dreams of Peony Pavilion” alone makes a visit to Fuzhou well worth it.

However, one major nuisance during the performance was that the park where it was staged did not prohibit smoking, leaving me constantly surrounded by second-hand smoke.