Saturday, October 03, 2009

It's a Messy Show...

Yesterday I went to attend "The Story of Dongpo and Chaoyun" by Guangdong Cantonese Opera First Troupe at the Esplanade. To be honest I had mixed feelings about this production on the whole. The acting and stage direction is great, but there're a few big flaws which I just can't accept.

First, the lighting was horrible. Despite being designed by the famous Zhou Zhengping (he'd designed lighting for many big shows in China), but it was painful to look at. Like for the final scene where by Su Dongpo was lamenting at Chaoyun's grave, the constant changing of coloured lighting was distracting. At several other scenes too, specials were lit for no apparent reason, misleading the audience to look at areas whereby there was totally no actions taking place. Of course, that is not to say Zhou's design sucks. I believed it is the fault of the programmer and/ or assistant lighting designer. Afterall, Zhou is only a guest lighting designer who designed the whole lighting (and to be honest I feel in general the lighting mood was good), and it is actually the assistant lighting designer who followed the troupe to Singapore and executed it. Somehow I think the assistant lighting designer or the lighting programmer failed to translate Zhou's lighting plan effectively, and it was very obvious on stage.

Secondly, the script contained severe factual problems. No doubt a playwright can change historical facts a bit to suit the whole script and the message he wish to convey to the audience, but geographical facts shouldn't be compromised. For this show, the playwright actually mentioned the West Lake constantly, even though Su Dongpo was supposed to be in Huizhou, Guangdong province. Now Huizhou and Hangzhou is thousands of miles apart!

It's a dismay that a professional troupe like this can make such big blunders. Luckily, the cast and music saved the show, and I believe they should still be given the credit.

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