Married for 50 years, and loving it

It's hard to go wrong with a theme like marriage. Even those who have never been married can relate to it. Particularly them!

As Brandon B Blackburn-Dwyer, the tenor who is playing the male lead in Beijing Playhouse's newest production I Do! I Do!, puts it, "You can see yourself in this play. There's nothing Chinese, Canadian or American about it."

Brandon, who plays the archetypal uninitiated husband, Michael, who goes through the motions of discovering conjugal life and the trials that it brings over 50 years, is not married yet. But playing a husband who sticks by his wife through thick and thin for half a century, since the rehearsals began in January, has added clarity to his views on marriage.

"At the end of the day love is everything. If you are committed you can make it work," he says.

Based on a Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical that premiered in Broadway in 1966, which was, in turn, based on Jan de Hartog's play, The Fourposter, 1951, starring the redoubtable Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy, I Do! I Do! is scheduled to run from May 14 to 30 at different venues across Beijing.

The director, Kathryn Westberg, who was actively involved in community and church theater in California, had decided early on that I Do! I Do! would reach beyond the "by the expat, for the expat" circle that English-language theater in Beijing often finds itself in.

"Marriage and its trials is a theme particularly relevant in China because economics plays a huge role in determining which way marital relationships might go," she says. Marital discord is often an offshoot of disparity in the financial status of the spouses, "when you either choose to stick together and work on it or go your separate ways".

Subtle changes have been made to the original script to make it especially pertinent to present-day China. The costumes and stage design reflect contemporary urban China, the reference to a nanny has been changed to ayi and talk of switching off the gas is replaced by turning down the heating.

The most fundamental change, however, is in trying to economize. Westberg has done away with elaborate sets and innumerable costume changes, cutting down on playing time. The actors age on stage, rather than rush back to the greenroom to apply prosthetic make-up.

Moving away from the conventions of a Broadway musical, I Do! I Do! will be staged in small, intimate spaces like the performance area in the Goose and Duck restaurant off the East Fourth Ring Road, with minimal props. As the newly-weds mingle with the spectators and the bride's bouquet lands on the lap of a lucky viewer, the scope for interactive theater is going to be unprecedented.

When the same show is staged in a 600-seat auditorium, it's going to be a different experience altogether. Beth Kerzee, the music director, who will appear on stage as the pianist when the performance space expands, is banking on the Chinese people's love of music and theater.

The introduction of a giant LCD screen will add a fresh, contemporary twist. With the change of venue, each night's performance is going to be significantly different, Kerzee assures.

Ruth Novales, who plays Agnes, the wife, in this two-hander, was introduced to Beijing Playhouse by her daughters, Lara and Dana, who acted in previous productions like The Christmas Carol. Playing her first acting lead, this mezzo-soprano from Philippines is learning a thing or two about histrionics from her daughters.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/13/2010 page19)