Shakespeare takes a Cantonese bow

 With the 450th anniversary of his birth marked two years ago and the 400th of his death a few weeks from now, the Bard has retained his top spot as the world’s favourite playwright. Over the past few years, many of us have watched more productions than ever before. And one of the delights of watching a Shakespearean production is seeing how the production concept differs from what have previously experienced, with extra fun coming from watching a play with which we’re familiar in another language. 

Such was the case for Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio’s Cantonese-spoken “Macbeth”, a co-commission of Hong Kong Arts Festival and Shakespeare’s Globe. This cooperation stems from the immense success of Tang Shu-wing’s “Titus Andronicus”, which was among the 37 productions in 37 languages staged as part of the Globe to Globe Festival during the London Cultural Olympiad 2012. This “Macbeth” premiered in London last summer and closed the 44th Hong Kong Arts Fest last weekend.

Tang cut some scenes and edited others and the play ran at a good pace, clocking in at a little over two hours. It was clear that he had both English and Hong Kong audiences in mind, as the title character, arrestingly performed by stage veteran Ng Wai-shek, and his wife, the equally mesmerising Rosa Maria Velasco, were attired in modern Western clothes while others wore traditional Chinese costumes – though that wasn’t simply to point to the villains of the piece.

Rather, as the prologue and epilogue by this modern day couple were set in the here and now, this bridge reminded us that what happened in this play, no matter how dreamlike or imaginative, is still recurring now. The performers’ movements showed influences of both Western physical theatre and Chinese traditional theatre techniques, and made it unnecessary for the audience to read surtitles all the time.

Set designer Ricky Chan’s backdrop looked like a Chinese landscape painting while the barren floor allowed lighting designer Leo Cheung to efficiently paint with western lighting techniques. Facing the stage and seated just in front of the audience’s first row was multi-instrumentalist Billy Leong whose rendition on Chinese, Japanese and Korean instruments, coupled with other soundscapes on his laptop computer, added aural texture to the production. 

While this “Macbeth” might not be as astounding as his “Titus”, Tang Shu-wing proved once again that Shakespeare is indeed our contemporary and there’s plenty more we can explore with his plays.

 

 ALL EYES ON HK