A Tribute to Reminisce Kuo Pao Kun
When the final rehearsal ended, Kuo Jing Hong walked off the stage to her sister, Kuo Jian Hong.
They hugged and cried.
Tonight, I am watching the play for the fourth time, having attended three of their rehearsals in the last two weeks*. I expect the cast will be slick and well-rehearsed and there will probably be nothing new for me to discover.
The black box is stripped bare by director Liu Xiaoyi to reveal the works of the theatre space. The atmosphere is sombre as the audience streams in. The actors are chatting lively at one corner of the stage. But the audience is unusually quiet today, eavesdropping intently.
The play unfolds as per the rehearsals. But I can feel the intensity from the participation of the audience sharing the intimate theatre space with the performers. We come to the scene where Jing Hong poses a question to Yang Ser Bin: Uncle, how did you guys get by during those trying times? There is a long pause in the middle of the sentence. She seems to be holding back a sob. I sit up, anxious for her next line to come. The audience must have sensed something wrong; all eyes are on her now. She manages to deliver her line, albeit a little late. Borrowing the words of Peter Brook, I believe the audience has ‘assisted’ the actor in some ways, causing her to offer something more than a repetition of the rehearsals.
If you are looking for an honest play based on the banned script, then you will not find it here. The director has no intention of putting up a play relating the struggle during the 1960s; he is more interested in finding out: so, what now? Years Later, after the incident of a play that was banned, what is left of that generation? What is the next generation doing? In the play, Yang says with a heavy heart that every generation has its own obligation. One cannot expect this generation to go through what the previous generation did, hence one also cannot expect this generation to make the same decisions or hold the same beliefs as the former did. The play that I just watched is a product of history – a result stemming from the play that never got staged.
Liu’s direction highlights the essence of humanity from Kuo Pao Kun’s script and brings that essence to a new audience. A strong spotlight shines onto the table where an adaptation of the original script happens. A margin of light falls off the edges of the table onto the floor. This highlights a border around it, beautifully framing this performance space. The light is so bright that it bounces off the surface of the table, and lights up the faces of the cast making them glow in an almost unreal fashion.
A microphone is attached to the table, picking up sounds when the actors interact with it. This sound design is courtesy of artist Darren Ng. Whilst Xiaoyi chooses to work with the symbolism of ‘paper’, inspired by the original playscript, Darren exploits the tactile motion on the table surface. Friction is cleverly translated into sounds that leads to a dramatic imagination of the industrial setting of the play. This setup allows Xiaoyi to present minimalistic account of the past struggle amongst the working class and relate the underlying humanistic themes to present day struggles.