Laugh -a-minute marath A on
A funky dance adaptation of the Chinese classic tale debuts in HK tonight. Dara Wang caught up with the director and actors in the lead-up to the show.
The producers of a new dance adaptation of the Chinese classic Journey to the West, debuting tonight at Sha Tin Town Hall, have quite a few surprises lined up for the audience. For instance, instead of clashing swords on the battlefield as they do in the book, the immortal beings in the dance-drama prefer to spend their time playing mahjong. Rather than use their supernatural powers to subdue the monsters, they like to play pranks on the devil, use modern medical apparatus to resuscitate a charac ter mistakenly struck down by lightning. And when it’s time to introduce the barking dog, which in the original is a heavenly beast, bravely staving off the monsters, it turns out to be a somewhat cute robotic version of the animal.
This epic story is all too familiar to a Chinese audience, as are some of its numerous screen and stage adaptations. Listed as one among the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, the story tells of a Buddhist monk and his three apprentices going on a pilgrimage to the “western regions” — Central Asia and India — to obtain sacred Buddhist texts. The book begins with descriptions of the birth of the Monkey King, i.e. the first apprentice. The rebellious Monkey King defied the authority of the heavenly emperor and had been pinned under a mountain, until the monk Xuanzang who happened to be passing by rescued him.
The City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) production is oriented toward wholesome, clean fun — the sort you might like to watch with your family. The artistic director Willy Tsao Sing -yuen is expecting to see families with children, laughing without a care, in the audience. The production is eagerly awaited by dance-theater enthusiasts as this would be Tsao’s first show geared toward family entertainment. Tsao, who has won accolades for his choreographic work in Requiem and Hell Screen, is associated with more somber treatment of serious themes — a far cry from robotic pets mischievously rolling on the ground.
The CCDC wanted to create a lighthearted show. The production, says Tsao, underscores the playfulness of the immortal beings and the curious nature of the Monkey King. Gregory Charles Rivers plays the role of the Goddess of Mercy (Kwun Yam in Cantonese), who is a savior figure in the original. During one of the rehearsals, when he said in Cantonese, “I am Kwun Sir from the South Sea, named ‘A-yam’. You can call me ‘Kwun Yam,’” the absurdity of a celestial being adopting a chatty, casual tone made everyone in the room burst into laughter. The director, who has seen the scene play out several times, too couldn’t stop laughing.
The scene in which Kelvin Mak Cheuk-hung who plays the Monkey King arrived in heaven was highly enjoyable too. Mak played the character like he were caught in a perpetual state of wonder at the things he came across and ended up playing hideand-seek with god.
“I d o n’ t h av e t o g i v e reasons as to why I broke away from my usual style in designing this show. One doesn’t need reasons to want to make one’s audience happy,” says Tsao.
Bring the kids
Terry Tsang Kingfai, who plays the role of the third apprentice, Monk Sha, described his first time portraying a character so different from his real-life persona. “From my impressions of the book I would think Monk Sha was the silent type, a character who did not do much besides carrying the luggage on the journey. However, we would like to make him more interesting and intriguing, in keeping with the way the performance has been designed,” Tsang said. In the CCDC production, during a confrontation with Xuanzang, Monk Sha uses supernatural powers to get the better of his opponent. Those familiar with Spiderman movies might find a resonance here.
The actor Rivers and s i n g e r Jo n a t h a n Wo n g Chee-hynn are joining the team as guest performers. Both are quite new to dance. Aside from Kwun Yam, Rivers also plays the narrator. Tsao says he cast Rivers for his “Western” face. “As the JourneytotheWest. story talks about a journey to the ‘West’, we needed a ‘Western’-looking performer to remind the audience of the final destination,” Tsao said.
The plot of the current show only covers the beginning of the journey Xuan- zang and his apprentices embarked on. The rest of the novel, which runs to a 100 chapters, will also be adapted in a series of similar lively productions, under the aegis of CCDC. Although the company is new to the idea of family entertainment, Tsao is determined to surprise his audience, play with their expectations and present a show that they can totally enjoy.