[KAKISENI]The Queen And I
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http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/reviews/MDk1MA.html
Safe tears and lavish costumes in the Singapore Repertory Theatre旧
Forbidden City
by CH Loh
26-09-2006
All men are scum, and all foreigners are evil. That is the gist of the
Singapore Repertory Theatre's megamusical Forbidden City: Portrait of an
Empress that is currently enjoying a brand-new staging, between the 7th and
30th of September 2006, at Singapore's own Big Durian, the Esplanade.
While history has proven that the latter part of the opening statement is
indeed true, and Forbidden City amply reveals why, the former is a little
more problematic.
The story of China's most powerful woman in the 20th Century has stirred
as many controversies as it has literary works -- some of which are pieces
of considerable scholarship; others, more fit for the shelf alongside Sidney
Sheldon. This Singaporean attempt at re-interpreting half a century of
Chinese history comes by way of a book that finds itself somewhere in the
middle of the spectrum.
In 1903, Katherine Carl, an American painter, was commissioned by the
infamous Empress Dowager herself, Empress Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, for a
portrait (hence the subtitle Portrait of an Empress, geddit). This act was a
diplomatic exercise by the elusive Dragon Lady to improve her image abroad,
and Carl spent roughly a year with the Dowager. She eventually published an
account of this time in her memoirs With the Empress Dowager in 1905.
Journalistic Bias
Forbidden City, the musical, revolves around the painter Kate Carl (Leigh
Macdonald) who endeavours to dig into the Empress?dark past in order to
inspire her portrait. Flashback scenes of Cixi旧 rise to power -- in her
youthful incarnation as Yehenara -- are played out from historical milestone
to historical milestone up to the Boxer Uprising of 1900, as the painter and
the Dowager weave somewhat confusingly in and out of scenes from the past.
Along the way we see Yehenara discarded by the Emperor after conceiving his
child; tortured by the Emperor旧 brother in his own quest for the throne;
tormented by her grown son who chases after the red lanterns and dies of
syphilis as a result; and manipulated by her nephew to sign orders for
reforms that lead to the unravelling of China旧 social order.
How the notoriously shrewd and ruthless Dowager so carelessly opens up her
inner secrets to this foreigner is a mystery -- perhaps it旧 a girl thing,
and Cixi just wanted a soul sister to lean on. But she picked the wrong bosom
buddy: under the illusion of love, Carl unwittingly kisses and tells all to
the sleazy journalist George Morrison. It is to her horror that Morrison,
without a hint of conscience, splashes sensationalised accounts of her
stories in the press. That Carl has been leaking her tales to Morrison
inexplicably escapes the Dowager旧 suspicions, though, and she pays the price
by being the first ever paparazzi victim in Chinese history.
Forbidden City weighs unequivocally on Cixi's side, pointing the finger
squarely at men: the ruthless emperor, his power-hungry brother, and creepy
journalists. There are questions that are never approached in the musical;
the most glaring one being the likelihood that the shrewd Empress would have
presented her foreign guest with a side of her made presentable for
international scrutiny -- the sort of disinformation campaign that Stalin
often played with the West when reporters were wined and dined, then taken to
prisoner camps where everyone had been pre-fed, washed and clothed to look
red, rosy and plump.
So even when the opportunity arises, towards the conclusion of the musical,
to explore the possibilities of the Empress having manipulated Carl with her
tales, Forbidden City旧 storytelling takes the safe route: betrayed by the
men in their lives, the three leading ladies (Carl, Cixi, and Cixi旧 younger
incarnation Yehenara) have a good cry as the curtain falls on Singapore's
showcase musical spectacle.
Singaporean Bias
Forbidden City shoots straight for a predictable Singaporean fairytale told
in typically Singaporean musical colours. The gorgeous period Chinese
costumes which are the island state旧 favourite orientalisms; the epic
Chinese tales, told in an incessant Broadway-styled score, shaded with
pentatones and underlined by er hu and gu zheng for authentic colour -- its
all there, delivered in the style of opulent National Day paeans that the
creators have no doubt been well trained in. And the occasion was a kind of
National Day, of sorts, as patriots packed the theatre to witness their
creative pride and joy. Forbidden City was, after all, first conceived as a
showcase to launch the nation旧 glittering Esplanade Theatre into the world旧
tourist pamphlets, parading national pride on an international scale.
Forbidden City stars some of the island best talents and then some. Led by
the trilling and quite thrilling Kit Chan as Yehenara, the cast delivers
generally strong performances. Filipino veteran Sheila Francisco shines the
brightest with her beautifully aged alto, displaying the most exquisite
control, even in her raspier and more difficult registers: a stunning display
of vocal mastery from a seasoned Broadway diva.
Ironically, it is the Hossan Leong-Sebastian Tan pair that steals the show
-- they play two scribes who glide in and out of the scenes on coasters,
providing hilarious commentaries in the manner of the Shakespeare旧 famous
fools. Curiously, the duo provides deeper insights into the story than do the
lead cast, and they are given the best scenes in the musical: the courtship
of Yehenara by the Emperor is cleverly narrated, and the comic relief in the
tale of creation according to the Chinese legend Pan Ku -- in Act 2,
reminiscent of the pantomime scene in The King And I -- is uproarious. It is
little surprise that Leong, who visibly relishes the role, and his saucy
sidekick Tan, get spontaneous ovations.
The duo camp their way through the musical, and provide a welcome antidote to
the otherwise dour plot and insistent score. They keep the musical from
taking itself too seriously. But even these antics are no match for the
wearisome trudge through 50 years of Chinese history, compressed into what
seems in excess of two and a half hours, of almost uninterrupted music. The
score is arranged in a rather dated style: its synthesizer patches,
synthetic-sounding piano and rudimentary bass does not quite live up to
Forbidden City旧 lofty billing and starry superlatives.
There are some memorable moments. Most notable of these is 荛entle Touch? a
song that opens Act 2 as the Dowager gives Carl a calligraphy lesson, and
deliciously reprised in the brothel scene. It is a number that finds the
Singaporeans very much in their element.
The stylised sets are simple but effective -- and especially stunning when
the Summer Palace is unveiled in Act 1. In other places, however, they were
sometimes perplexing: the neon blue of the opening train scene seems rather
salah, somewhat more suited to a 21st Century Shanghai bistro than 1903
China; and the plain blue cyclorama that greets us immediately after this, as
Kate Carl steps off the railway into Beijing, is equally baffling. And, when
Carl and the Empress return to the Forbidden City, the set is that of the
devastated Summer Palace (plus the aftermath of Boxer Rebellion mayhem, from
the preceding scene) -- this inconsistency is rather careless for a
production of such stature.
Forbidden City provides, no doubt, plenty of ideas for the National Day
musical extravaganzas of the future: the music is catchy, and a nation weaned
on such a diet is likely to take such a lavish production to their hearts. It
is a safe route, proven to bring rewards a-plenty. But let's hope that, in
the near future, similarly lavish attention will be paid to more
ground-breaking productions: Singapore旧 growing pool of artists deserve
encouragement in creating, for themselves, art with more questions.
~~~
CH Loh is a Malaysian in Singapore. He quit his day job to become a freelance
writer.
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