OzAsia: Ibsen in One Take

OzAsia: Ibsen in One Take

South Australia’s sister state, the Shandong Province of China, is the prime focus of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s 2014 OzAsia Festival, which features more than one hundred and forty performers from the region.

Spotlighting the rich history and culture of the province, the Festival also presents performances and events from Japan, India, Korea, the Philippines, Cambodia, Palestine, Bangladesh, Russia, Indonesia, Mongolia and Australia.

The September festival boasts six world premieres, seven Australian premieres and twenty-six Adelaide exclusives. It ranges across diverse arts genres including dance, film, fine art, theatre, a calligraphy installation and more, with one intriguing event, Ibsen in One Take, likely to have particular interest for theatregoers.

In an Australian premiere, Director Wang Chong and Beijing-based Theatre Du Reve Experimental present the play as a production that transforms to a movie, filmed live on stage in one take.

Inspired by the works of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen in One Take is an avant-garde exploration of theatrical convention in China and defies artistic and technical expectations.

Director of Beijing-based performance group, Theatre du Reve Experimental, Wang Chong has collaborated with world-renowned Norwegian playwright and sinologist, Oda Fiskum, to develop the material for the production.

Wang Chong is artistic director for Beijing performance group Theatre du Reve Experimental, having studied theatre in the United States. He has become a leading force in Chinese experimental theatre and is particularly renowned for his explorations into multimedia performance and documentary theatre.

Oda Fiskum is currently playwright in residence at Dramatikkens Hus, in Oslo, Norway but has worked with a range of companies and festivals world-wide. She was degree-educated at the London School of Oriental and African Studies and she also studied at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Her works have been translated into several languages and performed in many countries.

For Ibsen in One Take, Fiskum has integrated characters, themes and classic lines from Ibsen’s works with themes that resonate in modern China, creating a bittersweet story about alienation and estrangement.

I asked Wang Chong how the collaboration between playwright and director for the production evolved. His comments have been translated for this story.

“Oda Fiskum lived in Beijing for five years,” he said. “She knew everything about Ibsen and China, so she was the best one to work with. I came up with the concept: dying man looks back at his whole life through memory, dream and imagination. Oda had very good knowledge of all Ibsen’s dramas and created original and contemporary plots. It was a wonderful collaboration.”

When I asked what it was about Ibsen’s works that resonated with his China-based theatre company, Wang Chong said, “Ibsen is timeless. His works fit any countries. We based the characters in contemporary China, although all of them are nameless, thus universal. Our company is an experimental group. It’s always nice to ground our experimentation on universal human drama.”

Filming a play live on stage in one take is an exciting and risky concept, adding an extra dimension to a theatre performance. Says Wang Chong, “Live video, or ‘stage movie’ as we call it, creates a totally new perspective for the audience to look into characters with close-ups and emotional focus.”

While modern Chinese theatre is generally traditional in nature, the group of Beijing-based artists that make up Theatre du Reve Experimental is dedicated to refreshing the theatre scene there by exploring political, physical, documentary, multimedia and cross-cultural theatre styles. The company is also a touring group and has visited a number of countries with its unusual productions.

With only two performances during the OzAsia Festival, Adelaide audiences should book now to see this exciting and innovative Chinese performance group in action in the Australian premiere of Ibsen in One Take.

Lesley Reed

WHEN: Tuesday, September16 and Wednesday September 17, 7pm.

VENUE: Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.

BOOKINGS: BASS 131246 or http://www.bass.net.au/

For additional information/ OzAsia Festival programming visit:

http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/ozasia-festival/

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