Vengeance is mine

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“This is not Beijing opera,” is the refrain repeated by the cast and crew of Contemporary Legend Theater’s production of Medea (樓蘭女), which opened at the National Theater last night. Director Wu Hsing-kuo (吳興國) reiterated the stance during an interview last month as the production prepared to tour Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Medea may not be Beijing opera, but it would probably not be possible without the demanding combination of physical and vocal training that is the art form’s foundation. That said, the production would have been impossible without Wu’s own experience outside the confines of Beijing opera.

As a graduate of a traditional opera academy, Wu entered professional life with all the skills that an aspiring Beijing opera star requires. But looking to his future, Wu saw a narrow and increasingly circumscribed career in a sector of the entertainment industry that was already struggling against a tide of falling box office takings and indifference from a younger generation.

He formed Contemporary Legend in 1986 [see interview below], and went on to create some of Taiwan’s most innovative theater productions. In Medea, which was produced in 1993 based on a play by Euripides, Wu departed more completely than ever before from his roots in opera and created something that, in its defiance of convention, has remained fresh 15 years after it was first presented on stage.

The first production of Medea was directed by Wu’s partner Lin Hsiu-wei (林秀偉), whose background is in contemporary dance. Her close involvement with the work created a structural foundation more akin to dance than drama, and it is on to this that the very contrary aspects of Beijing opera have been grafted.

The “dancers don’t wear very much on stage and the focus is on their bodies. Beijing opera performers wear many layers of clothing,” Wu said. “[Contemporary dance] uses a very direct means of expression, but in Beijing opera, expression is veiled and indirect. These are profound differences.”

In Medea, the tension between two very different styles is embodied in the title role, which is played by Beijing opera diva Wei Hai-min (魏海敏). Dressed in a costume of almost architectural complexity designed by Tim Yip (葉錦添), the multi-award winning costume and production designer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍), Red Cliff (赤壁) and many other films, Wei recreates the passion and madness of Medea to the music of Hsu Po-yun (�?�). The score, which is based on Central Asian music, deprives Wei of the usual musical props of a conventional Beijing opera, and she is more than ever reliant on her incredible stage presence to hold the audience.

“The production would simply not be possible without Beijing opera training,” Lin said. “Simply moving around in the costume is a huge challenge.” Wei is backed up by performers who serve both as a Greek chorus and as part of the organic set designed by Lin Keh-hua (林克華). “We wanted the whole stage to come alive to reflect Medea’s emotions,” Lin said. While the costumes will be the same ones used in the 1993 premiere, the set has been totally reworked to give a fuller and more powerful atmosphere of the Central Asian desert, where the story of Medea has been transplanted.

The current production is directed by Wu, who brings a slightly different sensibility to the work, but at the core retains the powerful feminist sensibility provided by Lin in 1993.