Stage is set for festival of modern drama
The curtain was up on April 26 on the 2024 Modern Drama Valley, the city's annual theatrical extravaganza in Jing'an. Twenty-four productions in 104 showings – the most since 2009 – are being presented at nine venues through May 13. Over 80 percent will be Shanghai debuts, and here are some on tap. Tickets are available on damai.cn.
'887'
'887'
Date: May 4-5,7-8
Venue: Daning Theater
Address: 1222 Pingxingguan Rd
In his very first visit to Shanghai, Canadian theater artist Robert Lepage will be presenting his most autobiographical work "887."
Lepage is one of the most influential figures in contemporary theater after Peter Brook and Robert Wilson. The "Guardian" newspaper has called him "an alchemist in modern imaginative theatre."
"887" is a monodrama written, directed and performed by Lepage himself. The title refers to an address – 887 Murray Ave in Quebec – where Lepage lived as a boy in the 1960s. So, apparently, the play is a journey into the realm of his childhood memory.
During the 120-minute show, somewhere between a theater performance and a conference, Lepage questions the relevance of certain recollections: How does memory work? What are its underlying mechanisms? How does a personal memory resonate within collective memory?
'Waiting for Godot'
'Waiting for Godot'
Date: May 1-2
Venue: STA (Shanghai Theater Academy) Experimental Theater
Address: 630 Huashan Rd
Among a variety of adaptions of Irish writer Samuel Beckett's classic "Waiting for Godot," Greek director Theodoros Terzopoulos's version is not to be missed.
Terzopoulos is the leader of the Theatre Olympics and founder of Attis Theater.
In his hands, Beckett's famed tragicomedy is set on "the ruins of the world" where all traumas are exposed to the public. Under such circumstance, what does it take to make life worth living? Two solutions are offered: communicate with others or with the inner self.
Basically, Terzopoulos tries to look into humanity through this play.
As well as directing, he's also in charge of the set, lights and costumes.
Leading performers are Enzo Vetrano, Stefano Randisi, Paolo Musio, Giulio Germano Cervi and Rocco Ancarola.
'Der Kontrabass' ('The Double Bass')
'Der Kontrabass' ('The Double Bass')
Date: Through May 5
Venue: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center Drama Salon
Address: 288 Anfu Rd
This is the first work for the stage by acclaimed German novelist Patrick Süskind.
The one-act monologue, which debuted in 1981 in Munich, tells the story of a lonely musician in search of love and recognition.
It is set in a small room filled with the claustrophobic atmosphere, where the double bass player expresses his complex feelings toward his instrument: a companion, a lover and also an adversary. After he's fired by the orchestra, he sadly finds that he's always overlooked, and he has no other skills to make a living.
Through his story, the play explores the modern social dilemmas, where people face anxiety, confusion and reflection over the clashes between material and spiritual values.
This adoption is presented by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, directed by Yang Yi and starred by renowned actor David Wang from Taiwan.
'The Life and Times of Michael K'
'The Life and Times of Michael K'
Date: May 10-12
Venue: Yunfeng Theater
Address: 1700 Beijing Rd W.
"The Life and Times of Michael K" is adapted from a Brook Prize-winning novel of the same name by South African novelist JM Coetzee, which tells an arduous journey of Michael K. He is born with disability but tries to take his ailing mother back to her rural home in a time when South Africa is torn by civil war.
The novel illuminates the need for an interior, spiritual life, and for connections to the world in which we live.
South African director Lara Foot brings the novel to life through multi-layered theatrical staging which combines puppetry, performance, film and evocative music, in collaboration with the Baster Theater Center, the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and the Handspring Puppet Company.
'Lento E Violento'
'Lento E Violento'
Date: May 9-12
Venue: Lyceum Theater
Address: 57 Maoming Rd S.
Directed, written and performed by French-Italian artist Valentina Cortese, "Lento E Violento," which literally means slow and violent, is a hybrid form composed of dance, circus and comedy. It takes the audiences to a world of ambivalence where absurdity, illusion, doubt, failure and other elements co-exist.
The show is part of the "Special unit: Sino-France Commemoration" in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France this year.
