Date: Fri 29-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Quick Words:

Red-Long-Wharf-Stern

Full Text:

(rev "Red" @Long Wharf)

THEATRE REVIEW: At Long Wharf, A Sobering Look At Gov't Censorship

(with cut)

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN -- Communist China's cultural revolution was a ten-year reign of

terror begun by Mao Tse Tung in 1966, to counteract the failure of his "Great

Leap Forward" social program, and to crack down on criticism by dissidents and

intellectuals.

Brigades of high school and college students were given the job of attacking

and purging the Four Olds: old ideas, old culture, old habits and old customs,

all of which were being blamed for the non-fulfillment of the Communist dream

of workers' paradise.

Wearing red armbands and paramilitary uniforms, these teenagers were given a

license to go after anyone suspected of being deficient in proper

revolutionary spirit, as evidenced by knowing or caring too much about

"elitist" things like learning, art or traditional culture.

Schools, theaters, books and artwork were destroyed; artists and writers were

rounded up along with teachers and doctors and sent to the countryside to

labor on farms alongside peasants. Any adult suspected of having a "bourgeois"

background was subject to public criticism and humiliation. Many were

murdered, as teenagers who had been raised in a culture that had stressed

discipline and absolute obedience to their elders were suddenly given

unlimited freedom to get back at every authority figure who had ever scolded

or intimidated them.

In her autobiography, Daughter of Shanghai , the American movie actress Tsai

Chin described how her father, a star of the Beijing Opera, and her mother,

were humiliated, tortured and eventually beaten to death. This book provided

the nucleus for Chay Yew's drama Red , now showing at Long Wharf's main stage.

Like Greek Tragedy, Beijing Opera -- which dates back to the 19th Century --

uses ancient legends and incorporates traditional Confucian values of conduct:

loyalty, patriotism and devotion to family. It synthesizes music, ballet,

theater, acrobatics and martial arts, using highly stylized and magnificent

costumes and makeup, all of which is recognized and understood by the

audience.

Playwright Yew frames his story with a narrator, Sonya Wong Pickford, who

describes herself as the Asian Barbara Cartland, a romance novelist who has

achieved mega-success in the realm of TV mini-series and movie rights.

Glamorous and self assured with the brash egotism of a pap culture icon, Sonya

aspires now to something a little deeper: she travels to Shanghai to research

a biography of Hua Wai Mun, a Beijing opera star renowned for playing female

parts (all performers were traditionally men) who disappeared under mysterious

circumstances during the Cultural Revolution.

Although the play opens in the present day, once Sonya visits Hua's empty

theater, it comes to life and time merges with the past. She meets the pompous

and prickly actor who condescends to an interview, along with his "protege"

Lin, who began by begging the actor to teach her to become a performer, but

went on to become a member of the Red Guard, and eventually Hua's personal

inquisitor.

Sonya becomes an open-mouthed spectator to the dialectical clash between the

ideals of tradition and revolution, the shifts in power between the arrogant

old master and the righteous young vigilante, and conflicting motivations of

creativity and spite.

The theme of the opera itself is underlined by the repetitious, highly

stylized way in which the story sonorously unfolds. Director David Petrarca

has split the character of Hua into two parts, using an actual member of the

Beijing Opera, Jamie H.J. Guan, to perform segments of various operas, while

the speaking role of Hua the man is played by the actor Ric Young.

The impact of the play builds gradually. While the first act is dominated by

pageantry, the second ties everything together with a jolt of sudden

understanding.

An interview with Chay Yew in the playbill is very insightful, revealing the

playwright as a very angry young man who wrote Red about the evil of

government censorship and interference in the arts as a direct response to

Newt Gingrich and the decision by the National Endowment for the Arts to

impose standards of moral acceptability on work being considered for endowment

grants.

In the end, the play is interesting and thought provoking, offering a glimpse

of both history and an art form Americans generally know very little about.

(Performances continue until February 7, with curtains Tuesday through Sunday

evenings, and two weekend matinees. Call Long Wharf's box office, 787-4282,

for specific times and reservations.)