Opinions of a Wolf

Hello my lovely readers!

So, you may recall that one of my 5 star reads of 2011 was Wild Swans by Jung Chang (review).  Imagine my shock when I saw a poster for a play at the American Repertory Theater by the same name!  I immediately googled and found out that the very same book had indeed been made into a play with the cooperation and assistance of Jung Chang.  Holy shizzit!!  I bought a ticket then and there.

The show was last night, and I was skeptical.  How could a 90 minute play possibly encompass such a large book?  We’re talking the lives of three women and covering decades of China’s history!  But I was encouraged by the involvement of Jung Chang herself so went in with positive thoughts.

You guys.  I was blown away.

We entered the theater to see a Chinese market scene, complete with the actors talking in Mandarin (I think) while we were finding our places and waiting for the show to actually start.

Shortly the show started with De-hong (Chang’s mother) talking with her mother about her engagement to a Nationalist.  I was surprised that they were starting with De-hong.  What about grandma?  Clearly, I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to play adaptations, because how they told grandma’s story wound up being my favorite scene in the play.  De-hong’s refusal to marry the Nationalist quickly won the audience over, most of whom had not read the book.  It quickly established De-hong’s strong personality.

The next scene featured De-hong in full communist party uniform coming to a field of workers to explain communism.  In order to win the workers over to the cause, they explained their own family history of suffering at the hands of the elite.  It is here we got grandma’s story.  One of the comrades pulled out a traditional Chinese stringed instrument and a gong.  The others pulled out these GORGEOUS puppets!  I mean their faces were beautifully painted and so expressive.  The evil elites’ faces were grotesquely disproportionate and painted, whereas De-hong’s mother was simple and beautiful.  In a few short minutes, using the puppets to demonstrate, De-hong told the workers the story of her mother’s life suffering as a concubine and how she stole her away from the house.  I was shocked at how perfectly it worked and completely loved how smoothly it fit into the play.

The show then progressed to De-hong and Shou-yu’s courtship while working as comrades in the fields.  So far everything had pretty much taken place against the same scenery.  I was wondering how they were going to transition what I knew was coming–hospitals, apartments, schools, etc…  I was impressed when they rolled back the matting on the back wall while the action was happening.  Gradually transitioning from field to hospital.  This background scenery of people was used for most of the rest of the play with set pieces being moved around in front of it to depict the main settings of apartments, classrooms, hospitals, and meeting rooms.

The other thing that really impressed me in the play was how they managed to show the problems Comrade Ting caused without totally demonizing her.  They made it clear that Comrade Ting used to be with Shou-yu, and Shou-yu kind of rubbed his courtship of De-hong in her face.  Not that this excused Comrade Ting for going after De-hong, but it prevented her character from being too easily demonized by the audience.

I was also impressed with how, although the play makes it clear that Shou-yu’s commitment to Communism above all else hurt his family badly, it is also evident that his family still loved him and he them.  Another powerful scene depicts the young reds coming after Shou-yu and forcing Er-hong (Jung Chang) to choose whether to “draw a line” between herself and him or not.  Drawing a line is essentially disowning a family member.  Er-hong tearfully refuses and chooses to stand beside her father.  It was a great scene that eloquently depicted so much of the feeling of the book.

The play then subtly shows the passage of time to more modern ones by using a video of people working in a rice field as the backdrop for a scene where Shou-yu is working in a prison camp and Er-hong visits him.  This is when we start truly seeing Er-hong’s story.

The final couple of scenes were set against a background of cubes with more video on them.  This showed both the crowded hustle and bustle of the city and also the relative modernity of Er-hong’s young adulthood.  In just a few short scenes, the play managed to demonstrate the family being reunited, as well as Shou-yu’s persistent refusal, in spite of everything, to help his daughter by pulling strings.  He to the very end was committed to pure equality, even though Er-hong points out to him that nothing they do will change the system.  The father and daughter’s very different opinions are eloquently presented in a few short lines.  Er-hong then leaves her father and steps to the very front of the stage on a mat to demonstrate her eventual emigration from China.

Overall, the play ultimately focuses in on De-hong’s life, but it works.  We see how her viewpoint of her mother’s life influenced her choice to back up Communism.  We then also see how De-hong’s choices influenced Er-hong to ultimately leave China.  It’s an eloquent play that really does the book justice.  I encourage any of my local readers to go see it, as it is still playing.

Happy weekends!

PS I had pictures, but the production scolded me so I had to take them down.  Alas!