The Return of Soul at the Peony Pavilion, written by dramatist Tang Xianzu in 1598, included Scene 10 – Interrupted Dream. The scene provided us significant rooms for imagination and the vicissitudes of life presented in and outside the theatre. Among the variety of symbols and narratives, we went with the flow to look for individual and collective imaginative space.

 

Peony Pavilion was banned several times 450 years back. Every time it was restaged, it turned into even more indulged and plaintively showy. Now, all of us, please look at this theatre, look at its confines and taboos, and attend to the way we see and be seen in Interrupted Dream.

I constantly feel that the forward-thinking theatre arts embodies the potential of discovering and challenging the boundaries of theatre arts, and the world that lay beyond such boundaries; at the same time, understanding and managing the way of thinking and guidelines beyond theatre arts. Those who are concerned about culture would have the same sentiment, creating is about triggering development of culture, including that of the greater cultural environment and policies. The ‘Culture’ we discuss here has evolved beyond arts and culture to the capital ‘C’ – Culture at large. The ‘culture’ is a classification of the arts with quantifiable measures, such as you are a Kunqu artist and she is a Javanese dancer; you are a performer and he is a stagehand; how many performances he needs to do this year and how many audience members she needs to draw this year…… ‘culture’ has become part of the economic consumption, promoted as part of education, seen as a service to society or touted as a national branding. These are all distinctly quantifiable features that can be clearly managed by policy makers. I constantly feel that a forward-thinking Interrupted Dream in the Year of Gengzi embodies the potential of discovering and challenging the boundaries of the stage, and the world that lay beyond such boundaries; at the same time, understanding and managing the way of thinking and guidelines beyond the stage itself.

The Interrupted Geng Zi Dream (2020)

Producer: Wong Yuewai

Stage Manager: Carmen Cheng

Thai Translation: Pawit Mahasarinand

Assistant Stage Manager: Vienna Choi

Production Coordinator: Ricky Cheng

Tour Coordinator: Stephy Yeung