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Photos provided to China Daily
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It is amazing that Performance Workshop's works, helmed by the esteemed master Stan Lai and presented on the mainland by
Wang Keran and his Magnificent Culture, have an uncanny way of balancing low comedy and high concept, infusing the mundane with the sublime, taking aesthetic risks yet never falling into the pit of sentimentalism. Sure, the seed is from a Nobel-winning, socially conscious playwright, but Ding's touch of magic - not to say her immaculate sense of timing and pacing - has made it blossom so luxuriantly that it feels perfectly at home in the garden of Performance Workshop and the millions of Chinese fans who stroll in it.
A cast of five includes four Performance Workshop veterans and one newcomer. Hua Shao, host of the Chinese edition of The Voice, parlays his newfound TV fame into a role that does not need the speed of patter, for which he is nationally renowned, but a sense of groundedness and a degree of tolerance of the status quo typical of many in China. He is averse to any action or behavior that can be perceived as disturbing the ostensible peace and calm of society. However, he is swept away in the undercurrents of exploitation and greed from the powers-that-be. As such, this reluctant rebel may stand for many who, in the Chinese tradition, "go up to the mountain for rebellion" only when every other means is exhausted.
Raymond Zhou:
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