When the curtain of the Cultural Centre Theatre rose on March 21, the audiences were startled to see the prologue of the beloved play Princess Changpingwas a modern pas de deux of two shadows, Golden Boy and Jade Girl, dancing like broken puppets to the sound of out-of-tune radio.
The story, written by late local playwright Tong Tik-sang, was a bitter-sweet story of last princess of the Ming dynasty Changping. She was engaged to Zhou Shixian right before the dynasty collapsed. Her father decided to end his daughter's life rather than let her fall into the enemy's hands. But Changping survived and took refuge in a temple as a nun. Zhou found her by chance, but so did the Qing emperor, who ordered Zhou to bring her back. The couple return to the palace, hoping the emperor would honor the late ruler and release her brother who was being held captive. To show their loyalty to the Ming dynasty, they married under a tree with intertwining branches then committed suicide.
The historical fiction, premiered at the Lee Theatre in 1957, soon became a classic, starring the legendary opera duo Yam Kim-fai and Pak Sheut-sin. Although the play has been adapted and staged in almost every form, two brave artists decided to take on a new challenge – dance performance. Director Tang Shu-wing, who is known for maximizing imagination through minimal aesthetics, wanted to blend the tangible form of Western drama with abstract dance to form the poetic style that is often found in Chinese art. He deduced the essence of the eight scenes of the play and asked Xing Liang, a pioneer in modern dance, to choreograph the piece. Together, they deconstructed the chronology of the play and recreated it from their point of view.
The first and second scene, Oath Under The Twin Tree and Suffering Of The Princess, have rich and powerful dances that drew the crowd into the story. The way Zhou stood out from other pursuers, and the pride of the emperor as well as his agony were well conveyed through the elaborate costumes and dances to the electronic music. The third scene, Begging For The Princess's Corpse, was clam. Characters were being pushed out on a bench without any movement. But it was a nice break from the hectic dance. The clever use of a backdrop made the stage looked like a picture on a traditional Chinese scroll, giving it a subtle gloomy taste. It also showed the minimalist touch from Tang.
Then, there was a radio in the middle of the stage broadcasting original music from the opera in the fourth scene, Glance at the Nunnery, which was about Zhou's attempts to reunite with Changping. Xing took an offbeat direction by compressing the attempts and struggles and presenting them through several couples dancing simultaneously on the stage, reflecting the different stages of mind. It shocked the audiences out of familiar story in their head but opened their eyes to see the play in another perspective. The movement of the dances was elegant and intricate to echo the music with nice spatial arrangements.
All of a sudden, Tang started talking to Xing as a voice-over, while the character of Priestess Qin started to talk the two leading dancers through their pas de deux for the fifth scene, Reunion. It was a self-conscious move to educate the audiences how to understand the dance language, which earned attention and laughter. Some reckoned the explicit guidance was a breach of Chinese opera beauty that values subtlety. However, the performance was positioned as a dance drama, which implied interactions with the crowd.
The sixth scene, Welcoming The Princess, was the only part that incorporated elements from Chinese dance. The traditional opera costumes, steps and movements were an eye candy that the crowd had been looking forward to. But following the motif of reconstruction, the music was a rhythm formed by instrument from the traditional opera while modern dance steps were also seen. Again, Xing showed his talent in delicate dance movements that gave strong visual impact as a whole.
After immersing the audience back into the story, Tang moved everything to the modern times. A narrator in black suit was surrounded by dancers in their usual practice clothes in Scene Seven, Presenting the Petition. The petition was Tang's insights on life and death combined with his life philosophy, targeted to the audiences instead of the emperor. He deliberately disturbed the storyline and added his interpretation of the story to provoke contemplation, in an attempt to translate the fiction into our life story. The experimental intention to immortalize the classic was unique and novel, but the result was somehow chaotic and out of track. The blunt leap from the story to philosophical thinking left the audiences miserable. While there were too many distracting dancers on the stage, the petition was difficult to comprehend. The bittersweet essence of the scene was replaced by big question marks and disappointment.
The last scene, Death of the Princess, was anti-climactic, with only a giant clock hanging and a radio broadcasting the original opera music. Xing was borderline tricky not to choreograph the scene. But since Tang had dragged the audiences into the play in the last scene, the clock, music and empty stage prompted them to imagine their own ending for the play. Besides, the song by Yam and Pak was the pinnacle of the play that could not be paralleled. It served as a tribute to the local gurus who created such an evergreen play.
Tang's Princess Changping was an innovative adaption. He did not choose to celebrate pure love as the focus of the play. His ambition of contemporizing the classic through transcending its essence into a meditation about life was courageous. Although it resulted in ambivalent feelings, Tang and Xing, whose choreography complemented the modern play, deserve applauds for their bravery to play with a well-known classic with their original vision. The adaption is testaments that only through trail-and-error can creativity and art continue to evolve.
「看舞‧析舞‧論舞——舞蹈賞析及評論寫作計劃」由國際演藝評論家協會（香港分會）和香港舞蹈聯盟合辦及統籌。
本網站內一切內容之版權均屬國際演藝評論家協會（香港分會）及原作者所有，未經本會及/或原作者書面同意，不得轉載。