The Theatre Company of Leeqingzhao the Private's (李清照私人劇團) renderings of the heroines Bai Suzhen (白素貞) from Tale of the White Snake (白蛇傳) and Cao Chi-chiao (曹七巧) from Eileen Chang's (張愛玲) The Golden Cangue (金鎖記), have established the group's unorthodox approach to revisiting classical and contemporary literature.
For its production Auntie (阿姨), the two-year-old troupe teamed up with veteran Taiwanese opera singer Pan Li-li (潘麗麗) and Vietnamese-French composer Ton That An to produce a musical populated by a gay, a transvestite and blow-up dolls.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THEATER COMPANY OF LEEQINGZHAO THE PRIVATE
The story follows Wu Jin Yu, a woman abandoned by her husband. She has two sons; one homosexual, the other a transvestite. Having lived in shame for 20 years, the mother pins her hopes on two blow-up dolls as surrogate daughters-in-law who could bear her grandchildren.
One day, however, the husband returns as a drag queen performer called Auntie. Unable to accept the home truths around her, Wu murders her spouse, but in a fantasy sequence denouement she fulfills her dreams when one of her blow-up doll daughters-in-law produces her a grandson.
With a solid academic training in classical music and years of experience in contemporary dance and theater as well as classical plays and operas, composer An extracts elements from various music genres such as Bollywood film music, jazz and pop, and weaves them together in the treatment for each character. The classical motif of the neurotic mother is a perfect fit for Pan's elegant voice.
A three-hour premiere party will take place at Nanhai Gallery (南海藝廊) on Sunday afternoon with DJ Mitch spinning deep house. The production will move to Tainan for a two-day run in October. For more information, visit the troupe's bilingual Web site at www.leeqingzhao.com.tw.
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