Dedicated to diversity

Chinese arts works are not uncommon throughout the year in the Southeast Asian island state where most people are of Chinese descent and dialects of Chinese are either spoken or understood. Still, the Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay’s annual Huayi Chinese festival of arts whose 2017 edition ended last weekend, lived up to its promise that there’s plenty more we can learn from and at the same time be entertained by – something I felt strongly in the 36 hours spent in the Merlion city.
At the Esplanade Theatre Studio, the Necessary Stage, now celebrating its 30th anniversary, proved why it’s one of the leading theatre companies, not only in Singapore but also in the region. SEA Write laureate playwright and Cultural Medallion artist Haresh Sharma’s wrote his new play “Actor, Forty” in English and it was then translated into Mandarin by Quay Sy Ren – a first for Sharma in his long and illustrious career. 
Based on the life and works of Malaysia-born stage, TV and film actress Yeo Yann Yann (“Ilo Ilo”) and the 1995 Hong Kong film “Summer Snow”, the play ingeniously shifted back and forth between reality and fiction, further blurring the already thin line between them. That was largely thanks to Yeo’s performance which was always arresting, notwithstanding numerous costume changes with the help of two stage assistants who were so present on the stage that I wondered they should have been credited as actors! 
Director Alvin Tan, another Cultural Medallion artist whose collaboration with Sharma dates back as long as the company itself, managed to tell this structurally complex narrative very clearly, but the too frequent changes and shifts also meant that the audience didn’t fully feel the troubles and pain of this actress who’s torn between work and family.
Over the same weekend at the much larger Esplanade Theatre, Hong Kong’s Dionysus Theatre returned to Huayi with director Olivia Tan’s new production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Apart from the spoken language, which comprised both formal and colloquial Cantonese, another major change was turning the Mechanicals into Chinese folk characters who staged a play about, instead of Pyramus and Thisbe, the Pacific and Atlantic, the meaning of which I am still trying to figure out. 
A grand production with lavish sets and vivid costumes, the play was delightful and entertaining, albeit more for Cantonese-speaking audiences than the rest of us, thanks to engaging performances especially by veterans like Anthony Wong, as Theseus and Oberon, Rosa Maria Velasco, as Helena, and Franky Mcnugget, as Lor Yau, or Bottom in the original. The actors performing the Mechanicals also doubled as Fairies and I wish they had pushed the fantasy, if not the queerness, even further. The two male lovers, like in many productions of this play, were upstaged by their female counterparts. 
I found myself thinking of the sexually charged, and more surprising, Georgian production of the same play. That’s probably a problem and a challenge for any director tackling Shakespeare now – the audience is too familiar with it and constantly demands fresh interpretations. I also wondered why Huayi hadn’t invited Tang Shu Wing Theatre Studio’s “Macbeth”, which has been to the Globe Theatre. 
My highlight of the weekend was “Migration: A World Music Concert” by Haya Band from Mongolia whose name and music I had never heard before. A happy marriage between tradition and modernity, their music transcended music and language barriers. A fine blend of Matouqin, Dombra, native American flute, guitar, bass, drums and percussion created a wide range of sounds and moods. Tibet-born lead singer Daiqing Tana was always up to the task with her effortless and powerful performance that enchanted and captivated the audience. An example of how they wanted to communicated with the audience in a foreign country was when percussionist, drummer and throat singer Bao Yin was in the aisle sharing his singing technique with the audience – and I was, to much of my girlfriend’s delight, one of his shameless victims.
After their mesmerising one-evening-only performance, I wanted to buy their CD, only to find that they’d sold out before the concert began. The queue waiting for their autographs would have make passers-by think a new French patisserie had just opened.

MORE AT THE DURIAN
- Hu Zhi Hou (guan), Zhao Han Yang (erhu), Tang Liang Xing (pipa) and Li Zheng (dizi) perform on March 5.
- Five plays either by or adapted from plays by Haresh Sharma are part of the Esplanade’s “The Studios” season which runs every weekend from March 16 to April 14.
- Beijing People’s Art Theatre stages their highly popular play “Top Restaurant” from March 23 to 26. 
- Find out more at www.Esplanade.com. Tickets are available online at www.Sistic.com.sg.