Abstract
Cultural interweaving is demonstrated in the classics adaptation, and the words are represented by the retheatricalization of intercultural performance. My discovery is that modernization of Asian theatre can also be done by modern adaptation of the classics—both Asian and Western classics. The two performances that premiered in Taiwan—108 Heroes (June 2011, Taipei) and Measure for Measure (May 2011, Taipei)—use Chinese and English classics to do innovation through intercultural theatre. The former is adapted from Nai-An Shih’s (1296–1372) long novel Tales from Water Margin in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) in China; the latter is adapted from Shakespeare’s play of the same title in 1604 in the seventeenth century in England. I argue that World Theatre is cultural weaving by not only the contemporary interactive cultures but also the classical adaptation incorporated with the theatricality of the retheatricalization in intercultural theatre interpreted by Performance Studies.
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Notes
- 1.
The stylization of Beijing opera also belongs to codified acting. Codified acting has a certain particular acting method system. For Bertolt Brecht , Mei Lanfang might have been demonstrating the “Alienation effect” (or spelled as V-effekt). Performance Studies : An Introduction. Richard Schechner. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 155.
- 2.
If interested, please see Richard, H. (2008). Measure for Measure and the (Anti-) Theatricality of Gascoigne’s The Glasse of Government. Comparative Drama, 42(4), 391–408.
- 3.
According to Far East Concise Chinese-English Dictionary, the definition of Chi Pao is an all-purpose long gown worn by women in modern China (introduced by the Manchus). Editor in Chief. Liang, Shih-chiu. 2nd Ed. Taipei: The Far East Book, 1987, p. 237.
- 4.
For example, G. Wilson Knight, “Measure for Measure and the Gospels,” in The Wheel of Fire: Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Sombre Tragedies (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), pp. 80–106; Roy W. Battenhouse, “Measure for Measure and Christian Doctrine of the Atonement,” PMLA 61, 4 (December 1946): 1029–59; M. C. Bradbrook, “Authority, Truth, and Justice in Measure for Measure,” RES 17, 68 (October 1941): 385–99. All biblical references are to the Geneva Bible: A Facsimile of the 1560 Edition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969). See Harold Bloom’s introduction to William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.
- 5.
Many literature reviews mention about this point, for example, “Measure for Measure” in Modern Critical Interpretations (New York: Chelsea House, “Measure for Measure” in The Meaning of Shakespeare (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), pp. 436–54. “The Renaissance Background of Measure for Measure,” ShS 2 (1949): 66–82, 70–1, and the sources cited therein. W. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, ed. J. W. Lever, rev. Arden ed. (London: Methuen; Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), I.i.32–5. N. W. Bawcutt, “‘He Who the Sword of Heaven Will Bear’: The Duke versus Angelo in Measure for Measure.” ShS 37 (1984): 89–97, 95.
- 6.
In China, for spectators of Ying Ruocheng’s production of Measure for Measure (1981) in Beijing made sense for the Duke’s authority because of the politics in China. Y. L. Lan in “Ong Keng Sen’s Desdemona, Ugliness, and the Intercultural Performative” comments: “The trial of the Gang of Four looming over the country at the time provided a context in which this play, and particularly Angelo’s abuse of his power, resonated with political immediacy; at the same time, the Duke was not at all a shady character who uses his authority in suspect ways: “his methods and power were accepted as just and proper, not questionable or perverse” (260). Theatre Journal, 2004, 56(2), 251–273.
- 7.
O’Donnell, A. M. (2003). “Romance and Reformation: The Erasmian Spirit of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure” (review). Shakespeare Quarterly, 54(3), 328–330.
- 8.
See Marcia Riefer. “‘Instruments of Some More Mightier Member’: The Constriction of Female Power in Measure for Measure”.
- 9.
In the premiere of Measure, Measure! performed by Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company in the National Theater on June 8, 2012, Director Lu, Bo-Sen and the two collaborative playwrights—Perng, Chi-Hsi and Chen Feng—transform the background to be in (907–979) (after the late Tang Dynasty and before the Sung Dynasty) in China and change the ending. After Isabella’s silence without positively responding to the Duke’s marriage proposal in front of the crowd in the public, the playwrights add the lines of the Duke (Nan Ping King) to say that he will let Isabella (Mujung Ching) think about it and answer later. Then in Director Lu’s “mise-en-scène”, in the last scene, he designs Mujung Ching walks toward Nan Ping King on the high platform, which may signify that she perhaps says yes as a more positive happy ending in the end of the performance which still does not give a definite expression and leaves open interpretation for the audience members and the critics.
- 10.
In the introduction to Pavis’s edited volume, Intercultural Performance Reader, 5ff
References
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Programs and Multimedia
Program of 108 Heroes: Tales from “The Water Margin”. 2011. The Contemporary Legend Theatre, the National Theater, June.
Program of Measure, Measure! 2012. Taiwan Bangzi Opera Company, the National Theater. Premiered on June 8.
108 Heroes: Tales from“The Water Margin”. 2011. Dir. Hsing-kuo Wu. The Contemporary Legend Theatre.
Measure for Measure. 2006. Dir. Bob Komar. Lucky Strike Productions. Color.
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TUAN, I.Hc. (2019). Representation of Chinese and Western Classics: 108 Heroes and Measure for Measure in Taiwan. In: Nagata, Y., Chaturvedi, R. (eds) Modernization of Asian Theatres. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6046-6_9
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