KING LEAR
Contemporary Legend Theatre
Theatre Royal, Hobart
4th and 5th April
Reviewer: Gai Anderson
Taiwan’s Contemporary Legend Theatre formed almost 20 years ago to combine elements of Western and Eastern Theatre in their reinterpretations of the classics.
Their lavish, strikingly visual and spectacular production of King Lear, with solo performer Wu Hsing – kuo performing all 10 characters, is an astounding piece of theatre, which takes this classic tale of filial betrayal, love and power into the strange and wonderful realm of Chinese Opera.
Hsing –kuo strides onstage through billowing smoke and columns of dark red light which drop from high above like streams of blood. Wired to the max, his spinning, strutting, shaking embodiment of the crazed Lear is visually startling. His tangle of hair and silver beard almost sweep to the floor as he struts on high wooden clogs, ranting, singing, teetering, falling, calling to heaven and his lost Cordelia, his ornate red and black metallic costume shimmering and flashing about him.
The music is astounding. Lear is driven by the astonishingly passionate percussive music of the orchestra, just-seen at the side of the stage. The orchestra’s boings and twangs, drive, retreat and dance in dialogue with this other-worldly king as thunder and lightning flash and rain finally pours down upon him.
And that was just the beginning.
Inside a ritualised bubble I sit transfixed for the next 80 minutes as this astonishing performer transforms to inhabit the nine other characters, using the heightened language, stylized movement and archetypal characters of Beijing Opera.
Shakespeare’s story is sliced and rearranged, sung, spoken and translated in surtitles to keep us on track.
If you are very fond of Shakespeare’s text, this might not be the show for you as it is the striking physicality, the incredible score and the costumes that carry this classic tale to its dramatic conclusion.
Don’t miss it.
Gai Anderson is a writer and performer based in Cygnet, Tasmania.
Theatre Royal, Hobart
4th and 5th April
Reviewer: Gai Anderson
Taiwan’s Contemporary Legend Theatre formed almost 20 years ago to combine elements of Western and Eastern Theatre in their reinterpretations of the classics.
Their lavish, strikingly visual and spectacular production of King Lear, with solo performer Wu Hsing – kuo performing all 10 characters, is an astounding piece of theatre, which takes this classic tale of filial betrayal, love and power into the strange and wonderful realm of Chinese Opera.
Hsing –kuo strides onstage through billowing smoke and columns of dark red light which drop from high above like streams of blood. Wired to the max, his spinning, strutting, shaking embodiment of the crazed Lear is visually startling. His tangle of hair and silver beard almost sweep to the floor as he struts on high wooden clogs, ranting, singing, teetering, falling, calling to heaven and his lost Cordelia, his ornate red and black metallic costume shimmering and flashing about him.
The music is astounding. Lear is driven by the astonishingly passionate percussive music of the orchestra, just-seen at the side of the stage. The orchestra’s boings and twangs, drive, retreat and dance in dialogue with this other-worldly king as thunder and lightning flash and rain finally pours down upon him.
And that was just the beginning.
Inside a ritualised bubble I sit transfixed for the next 80 minutes as this astonishing performer transforms to inhabit the nine other characters, using the heightened language, stylized movement and archetypal characters of Beijing Opera.
Shakespeare’s story is sliced and rearranged, sung, spoken and translated in surtitles to keep us on track.
If you are very fond of Shakespeare’s text, this might not be the show for you as it is the striking physicality, the incredible score and the costumes that carry this classic tale to its dramatic conclusion.
Don’t miss it.
Gai Anderson is a writer and performer based in Cygnet, Tasmania.
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