Performance

King Lear

Stars of the Chinese Opera

Fri, Mar 24, 2006
8.30 pm
Admission: 15 €, concessions 10 €
Sat, Mar 25, 2006
8.30 pm
Admission: 15 €, concessions 10 €

Talk with the audience after the performance on 25.3.

Wu Hsing-Kuo, Copyright: Dirk Bleicker

A Jingju performance based on William Shakespeare’s King Lear by and with Wu Hsing-Kuo (Taipei/Taiwan).

A Contemporary Legend Theatre production.

Première of the new version with the orchestra of the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

The transformation of Wu Hsing-Kuo, Copyright: Dirk Bleicker

In this grandiose solo adaptation for the Beijing Opera, Wu Hsing-Kuo plays ten different roles alone. He artistically employs the traditional means of expression: props, acrobatics and stylised battle techniques, to characterises his figures in a modern, fast-moving and highly emotional game of metamorphosis. "In any language this is an exciting theatre. But it is bonus to see such a well-conceived innovation that combines the dazzle of Peking Opera with the strengths of Western realism." (The Guardian)

Wu Hsing-Kuo, the artistic director of the Contemporary Legend Theatre, is one of the most important theatre artists in Asia. Not only has he adapted some other Shakespeare dramas (Macbeth and The Tempest), but also plays by Euripedes and Beckett for the Beijing Opera (Jingju).