Director Wu Hsing-kuo receives rave reviews for creatively adapting a hallowed Chinese art form.
The Kingdom of Desire is no ordinary Chinese Opera. Although it depicts a power struggle 2000 years ago in the feudal state of Chi, in this case the Warring States period of Chinese history strikes a familiar chord in Western audiences: Chi is the equivalent of Scotland and the storyline is Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The play is the first production of the Contemporary Legend Theatre, recently formed in Taipei by a group of young Peking Opera actors and actresses. Wu Hsing-kuo, the major initiator, director, and male protagonist of The Kingdom of Desire, is seeking to revitalize the ancient art of Peking Opera by combining it with modern theatre techniques.
Wu brings impressive credentials to the undertaking. He received extensive training in Peking Opera in the Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy, and later studied drama at Taiwan’s Chinese Cultural University. While still a student, he joined the Cloudgate Dance Ensemble, an outstanding modern dance group based in Taipei. During a performance tour with the group in Europe and the United States, Wu became fascinated by contemporary Western developments in music, dance, and drama.
His subsequent study of Western art forms eventually caused an overwhelming sense of melancholy. Peking Opera with its unique music, rhythmic body movements, diversified face paintings, and complex acrobatics attracts little international attention despite its extraordinary artistic merit. Even local audiences are dwindling, with modern youth calling it “old-fashioned.”
Wu took on a double challenge. He decided to revive the popularity of Peking Opera in Taiwan by adapting it to modern theatrical forms, and to take his rejuvenated opera form to international audiences. He first quit modern dance and apprenticed himself to an old master of Peking Opera in order to improve his own knowledge and command of traditional performance.
By 1983, his idea of producing an opera that would combine both Chinese and Western theatrical traditions was being enthusiastically supported by Lin Hsiu-wei—his wife and also a former member of the Cloudgate Dance Ensemble—and a dozen other young friends, most of whom were Peking Opera players. The group met together after working hours to plan details, and eventually the Contemporary Legend Theatre was born.
The group’s immediate problem was deciding on an appropriate play for their debut. The choice was not easy. Traditional opera performances normally emphasize one of four fundamental components: singing (chang), reciting (nien), movements (tso), or fighting (ta). In the early 20th century, which was the zenith of Peking Opera’s popularity and vitality, superstars skilled in one of these fundamental techniques frequently turned a play into a one-person show. Script writers often wrote special operas geared to showcase the strengths of famous actors and actresses. While current performances of these operas are truly superb, the scripts remain structurally loose and lack impelling dramatic force. Wu and his colleagues at first thought of revising one or more of the operas in the traditional repertoire, but after careful deliberation jettisoned the idea for fear of failing to transcend the existing level of performance and of being overly confined by traditional influences.
After months of discussion, the group finally selected Shakespeare’s Macbeth, agreeing that a foreign script allowed more room for experimentation and that there was little danger of falling into traditional opera stereotypes. Moreover, they saw many similarities between Shakespeare’s plays and Peking Opera: the narrative recitals, the poetic lines, the asides, and the serial appearance of numerous actors.
With a confident smile, Wu points out another reason for selecting Macbeth: “There will be a day when we will appear on foreign stages, and a familiar story will in itself be an additional attraction to Westerners. We want as many audiences as possible to develop an appreciation of the wonders of Peking Opera.”
The Kingdom of Desire required adapting Peking Opera forms of staging, music, face painting, costume design, and acting to modern dramatic requirements. The company achieved spectacular results.
Peking Opera uses understated backdrops and very simple props. A table and chair most often suffice for the large majority of opera scenes. The Kingdom of Desire radically departed from tradition by employing western-style stage flats to depict scenes ranging from gruesome forests to bedroom chambers.
Melody is the soul of Peking Opera and Wu retains the accepted forms of singing in the play. But he revises the accompaniment by adding more instruments to the orchestra in order to enrich the music. This is an important innovation based upon his belief that the musicians of Peking Opera have long been neglected. In the past, those individuals who failed to make the grade as opera players reluctantly became performance accompanists. Music was always the second option because the glamor is reserved for those on stage. Moreover, musical training was always haphazard. Beginners were self-taught, fumbling to copy the techniques of more experienced musicians. Few became maestri, and those who did achieve fame worked with famous actors and rarely spent time with musical novices. In The Kingdom of Desire, Wu emphasizes the play is a unity composed of independent yet equally important art forms. He hopes that formal, systematic music classes can be arranged to encourage promising musicians to enter the field.
Opera face painting is a highly developed art. In ancient times when operas were performed either during daytime or under candlelight, exotic face paint blended comfortably with the colorful costuming. But with modern stage lighting the bright colors appear overly prominent. Wu decided to give it up despite some loss of glamor. The only trace of face painting left are red marks between the players’ eyebrows. Spearshaped red paint on the forehead of Ao-shu Cheng (Macbeth) signifies his martial valor, and Lady Ao-shu (Macbeth’s wife) has a pointed ellipse representing her resolution.
A ghostly apparition disrupts a banquet. At right, some stage props hold to Peking Opera form.
Wu’s own stage performance presents Macbeth’s complex character by using all the fundamental classical opera acting forms. He utilizes the acrobatics of the “military man skilled in acrobatics and fighting techniques” (wu sheng), including jolting on a frightened horse, flipping down from a five-foot high platform, and falling dead stiffly on his back. He has extensive singing and reciting parts, which are typical of the “dignified, middle-aged man” (lao sheng), and after he murders the king and becomes fanatic about keeping the throne, only the performance of the “person with violent disposition” (hua lien) can fully express his exasperated emotions.
Actress Wei Hai-min has similar challenges with the role of Lady Ao-shu. She has Peking Opera experience in assuming the role of the “virtuous young woman” (ching yi), but Lady Ao-shu’s temperament is far from the tenderness and obedience defined by the technique. And the more open, “flirtatious” character (hua tan) lacks the required dignity and determination. Wei manages to combine the two techniques with modern theatre acting, powerfully interpreting the demanding role.
Lin Hsiu-wei approached Lin Ching-ju to see if she would do the costume design for The Kingdom of Desire. Lin, who is senior costume designer for the Cloudgate Dance Ensemble and for major local dramatic and dancing performances, complied without hesitation. When told of the rather frugal budget of the theatre group, she said she would provide both materials and designs “free of charge.”
Peking Opera costuming is as colorful and resplendent as its face painting, but once again modifications were made to adjust to modern theatre setting and lighting requirements. Lin consulted historical materials and took the clothing common in the Warring States period as her basic patterns, then elaborated on them while trying to maintain the quality of Peking Opera costuming. She boldly left out the flowing sleeves and fancy colors of traditional opera, using dull and heavy hues more suitable to a tragedy.
Lin eventually produced forty-four costumes, working eighteen hours a day for more than a month. The results amazed and pleased the audience. In Act II, for example, when Lady Ao-shu urges her husband to murder the king, she wears a dress with a special fold at the back. When she bends forward to exhort her husband to hold firm to his ambitions, the fold protrudes slightly upwards, giving her the appearance of a threatening cat arching its back.
Wu faced numerous challenges in his role a first-time director of an unprecedented play. A major difficulty was to release the Peking Opera players from their characteristically over-stated acting habits so they could give more restrained and suggestive performances. Secondary characters also had to be retrained. Coordination of the lung tao, or those who simply walk on stage to appointed positions and stand still as the play progresses, posed a problem for modern production standards. Wu required everyone to act, even the lung tao, and actually respond to the actions of the principal players. He designed the first appearance of the lung tao who serve as Ao-shu’s soldiers as an independent acrobatic show. And in the last scene, when Ao-shu and his army are besieged by opponents, the marvelous performance of Wu fighting the lung tao pushes the play to its stunning climax. Wu, as the desperate Ao-shu, struggles to assert his authority, but the soldiers with various expressions and gestures effectively show their movement from panic to mistrust and, finally, to rebellion.
Today the future of the players is uncertain. When performances become more regular and demand more time, they will be forced to make a difficult choice: either to work full-time in the impoverished Contemporary Legend Theatre or stay in their present positions in traditional Peking Opera groups and receive steady incomes. “I feel tremendous responsibilities on my shoulders,” Wu says. “Where do I go from here?”
His problem may be easily solved. The Kingdom of Desire has attracted widespread favorable attention. Several organizations have made inquiries about the possibility of a tour around Taiwan and eventually to Europe. If sufficient financial support is forthcoming, the world in fact may be introduced to a unique art form revitalized in the time-honored method of adapting traditional forms to modern requirements. And Macbeth will come alive once more in a distinctly powerful guise.