T he Wedding Banquet (喜宴) meets Lan Yu (藍宇) in Creative Society Theatre Company’s (創作社劇團) He Is My Wife, He Is My Mother (少年金釵男孟母), a comedic costume drama that explores sexuality against the backdrop of the Republic of China’s early years and the 1940s.
The gay-themed play about lust, romance, family and friendship spanning two generations premiered in May last year and was proclaimed by the United Daily News as one of 2009’s top theatrical productions.
He Is My Wife, He Is My Mother was adapted from the sixth chapter of Qing Dynasty writer Li Yu’s (李漁) novel Silent Operas (無聲戲). The book was banned because of its risque subject matter, only to resurface during the second half of the 20th century.
Director and playwright Katherine Hui-ling Chou (周慧玲) discovered Silent Operas in a library at Columbia University while she was pursuing a PhD in drama at New York University.
“I was intrigued by how this writer obviously revels in his explicit description of homosexual love and sex but details them in a sardonic tone,” said Chou during rehearsal on Wednesday. “He portrays homosexual love in the first half of the story and decides to finish it with a virtuous mother raising a son in the second half.”
Though the novel is set in the early Qing Dynasty, Chou has adapted the story to a modern setting.
Her play tells the tale of a love triangle between three homosexual men.
Xu Jifang (�?�) (played by Hsu Hua-chien, 徐華謙), a widowed father, falls in love with the youthful You Ruilang (尤瑞郎) (played by actress Hsu Yen-ling, 徐堰鈴). The two become lovers and move in together.
Chen Dalong (陳大龍) (played by Lee Yi-hsiu, 李易修), Xu’s former lover, is so angered by his ex’s betrayal that he orchestrates You’s arrest, which, without giving too much away, leads to Xu’s death.
The bereaved You moves to a distant city with his late lover’s young son, where he impersonates the boy’s mother in order to raise him.
“This story is about communication both ways,” said Chou. “We usually think about children coming out of the closet to their parents, but parents sometimes need to come out to their children.”
During rehearsal on Wednesday, Xu and You’s first night of torrid sex was handled tastefully by the two actors with symbolic body gestures while Lee played nanguan (南管) music in the foreground.
The play neither sells itself as overblown comedic relief nor insults audiences’ intelligence with jazzed up sex scenes.
“There have been too many gay plays that try to peddle political agendas or rely on steamy sex scenes,” said Chou. “I just want to touch people’s hearts.”
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