China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Merchant visits Shanghai’s Great Theatre
The upcoming Chinese production of The Merchant of Venice has brought together a star-studded cast and a Laurence Olivier Award winning theater director from Britain.
The play directed by David Thacker, featuring actors Jin Shijia, Yu Ailei and Ayanga, will premiere on Oct 4 at the Great Theatre of China in Shanghai.
The show will play to a packed house from Oct 4-7, after tickets to all four performances sold out within minutes when the box office opened on Aug 30. “I was trying to buy some tickets myself, but all of them were gone even before the webpage was loaded,” says a staff member at the Great Theatre of China who asked to remain anonymous. In order to meet the strong demand, the theater management was even considering selling some seats with partially obstructed views of the stage, she says.
One of the main attractions of the production is the cast. Ayanga, who will play the role of Antonio, is a Chinese singer and musical actor of the Mongolian ethnic group. He achieved national fame through the talent show Super-Vocal, which aired on Hunan TV. “I am the new boy of the theater stage,” says the 30-year-old. “It almost seemed impossible that one day I would be performing in a Shakespeare play like The Merchant of Venice. This is a great opportunity for me to improve my stagecraft, especially with Mr Thacker being our director.”
Jin Shijia and Yu Ailei, two veteran actors of both screen and stage, will play the roles of Antonio and Shylock, respectively.
Thacker, 69, who has helmed seven productions that have played in London’s West End, praised the actors for their dedication and professional skill, as well as their selflessness. “They were ready to share their skills and observations with less experienced actors in the cast,” he says, adding that they are a “great tribute to actors all over China.”
Standing on the stage of the 90-year-old Great Theatre of China, Thacker says the newly refurbished space reminds him of venues in the West End, making him feel at home.
With the help of interpreters he has happily worked with the cast in Shanghai, all of whom are in the same age range as his four children.
At a press conference on Aug 29 announcing the show, he said that, during rehearsals, he would sometimes imagine Shakespeare himself entering the room and would ponder the question, “How would he want to do it?”
“He would want a production for audiences today, the Chinese people in Shanghai, not for people 400 years ago,” he says. “He would want the play to be exciting and stimulating for the audience now.”
The Merchant of Venice will be the sixth production of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Shakespeare Folio Translation Project in Chinese. The project, which seeks to make the Bard’s works more accessible to Chinese speakers, kicked off in 2015.
Among the five productions staged so far are The Tempest by the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Twelfth Night by the Guangzhou Dramatic Arts Center, and Hamlet by the Li Liuyi Theatre Studio in Beijing. All three plays were premiered last year.
The new production of Merchant will be the closing program of a showcase of international theater art at the Great China Theatre which started in June. Produced by the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the new Merchant will be “refreshing and authentic”, according to Huang Changyong, director of the academy. “Shakespeare’s plays are presented every year as graduation projects at our academy. In the past couple of years we have made some very good interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays, and we really believe the new production will be of great quality.”
How would he (Shakespeare) want to do it? He would want the play to be exciting and stimulating for the audience now.” David Thacker, theater director from Britain