Chinese play that ‘schooled’ British theatre goers, in city

BENGALURU: A Chinese folktale, which is funny for its take on human nature and political for educating European audiences on cultural diversity, will be staged as a play ‘The Year of the Rooster’.
One of city’s older amateur theatre groups Bangalore Little Theatre will be presenting this on Sunday at MLR Convention Hall in JP Nagar, at 4 pm and 7.30 pm.

Directed by Archana Kariappa and Vijay Padaki, this play has an interesting history. A year after George Bernard Shaw wrote a scathing review of two ‘Chinese’ plays staged in London, for caricaturing the Chinese, artist SI Hsiung decided to educate the British theatre-goers.

He brought “a Chinese play, rooted in Chinese literature and culture, and presented it as the Chinese would perform it,” says Padaki. This was Lady Precious Stream, from which The Year of the Rooster draws heavily from.Archana says, “The Year… uses bare minimum props, as it is done in traditional Chinese theater.”

It relies on the imagination of the audience. Padaki quotes the narrator of the play, “scenery is a thing we have never heard of”, and adds, “A prop here and a prop there, and the scene is set. More important, the audience is invited to join the artists in the delightful adventure of imagination.”

Also, stage hands play a big role in the telling of the play. Archana says, “In this play nothing is hidden from the audience. Everything happens in plain sight. This is where the stage hands or rather the Prop Masters come in. They provide all the props to the characters example the horses, chairs to sit on, pillows to kneels on. They hold the story together from beginning to end.”