Laughing their way back to the capital

It's not a typo. Shamlet, not Hamlet, will play at the National Center for the Performing Arts (also known as the National Grand Theater) from tomorrow to Sunday. It is not Shakespeare's tragedy but Taiwan director Lee Kuo-shiu and his Ping-Fong Acting Troupe's classic situation comedy.

When the play had its mainland debut at the PLA Theater of Beijing on May last year, laughter was heard about 150 times during the performance, and the curtain call lasted more than eight minutes.

"We feel very honored to be the first drama troupe from Taiwan to perform at the National Grand Theater," says Lee, founder and artistic director of Ping-Fong Acting Troupe. "This will be an important tour in our history."

Shamlet tells the story of an amateur theater group called Fong-Ping, which goes on a tour with a play called Shamlet. After their debut to a very lukewarm reception, they vow to strive harder as they travel, but are plagued by problems among the cast.

In the first scene, the Fong-Ping Troupe plays some of the most important parts of Hamlet, which will be performed by the troupe again and again during their tour, but personal vendettas turn the play into a chaotic mess.

"Please do not be late for this play. If you miss the first scene, you will have problems understanding the later japes," Lee says.

Hamlet is Lee's favorite Shakespearean play, but he decided not to follow Shakespeare's lines when he produced Shamlet in 1992.

"Shakespeare is the greatest playwright in the world, but there's one thing in which I'm superior to him: I'm alive," Lee says. "Then I decided to make use of Hamlet to write a play to reflect today's society."

Many people like to compare Shamlet with Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, one of last year's most popular plays by another Taiwan director Stan Lai. Both plays adopt the form of a play-within-a-play.

"Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land is a combination of a tragedy and a comedy, which results in a touching story. Shamlet is a combination of a tragedy and its performers' personal troubles, which results in a comedy," Lee says. "It's like the mathematical rule of 'multiplying negatives makes a positive'."

Lee used to be a member of Lai's performance workshop, and he was one of the authors and performers of The Night We Became Hsiang-Sheng Comedians, a classic of Lai's workshop.

In 1986, Lee founded the Ping-Fong Acting Troupe. Ping-Fong (Pingfeng), which means screen, is an indoor device for blocking the view in traditional Chinese houses.

"Ping-Fong is like the 'fourth wall' in Western theater, behind which the audiences can watch all kinds of things happening on the stage," Lee says.

The Ping-Fong Acting Troupe has put on 36 plays so far, and most of them are written, directed and starred by Lee, including Shamlet, in which Li plays the Fong-Ping troupe's director Lee Shiu-kuo.

Premiered in 1992, Shamlet is Ping-Fong Acting Troupe's 11th work. The play has had four versions, in 1992, 1995, 2000 and 2006, dubbed the "Debut Version", "Revised Version", "Ecstatic Version" and finally the "Orgasmic Version" which will be staged at the National Center for the Performing Arts.

"I'm looking forward to amusing Beijing's audiences again with Shamlet, and I hope that our audiences can understand something about the relationship between people through this play," Lee says.

English subtitles are provided.

(China Daily 01/15/2008 page19)