The Imperial Granary Production of Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion)

CHINOPERL Papers No. 29 (2010)©2010 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature PERFORMANCE REVIEW: THE IMPERIAL GRANARY PRODUCTION OF MUDAN TING (THE PEONY PAVILION) COLIN MACKERRAS Griffith University, Australia Title of drama: Mudan ting 牡丹亭 (The Peony Pavilion) Author: Tang Xianzu 湯顯祖 Producer (chupin ren 出品人): Shao Donghong 卲東鴻 Artistic Director (yishu zongjian 藝術總監): Lin Zhaohua 林兆華 Director (daoyan 導演): Wang Shiyu 汪世瑜 Site of performance: Imperial Granary Theater, Beijing The Cast: Du Liniang 杜麗娘 (Bridal Du): Hu Zhexing 胡哲行 Liu Mengmei 柳夢梅: Lü Zhijie 呂志杰 Chunxiang 春香 (Spring Fragrance): Zhang Sichen 張思辰 Shi Daogu 石道姑 (Abbess Shi, Sister Stone): Chen Bin 陳濱 Huashen 花神 (Flower Spirits): Zhang Yu 張宇, Zhou Lianmeng 周連猛, Chen Qing 陳青, and Gao Fan 高帆 The Musicians: Di 笛 (side-blown bamboo flute): Qian Hongming 錢洪明 Gu 鼓 (clapper and drum): Zhang Jinkui 張金魁 Sheng 笙 (mouth organ): Wang Zhichao 王智超 Tihu 提胡 and Erhu 二胡 (two-stringed bowed fiddles): Zhang Xuemin 張學敏 Pipa 琵琶 (lute): Yu Li 虞力 Guzheng 古箏 (plucked zither): Wang Yan 王燕 The Imperial Granary Beijing production of Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion) is a good example of a Chinese attempt to revive traditional CHINOPERL Papers No. 29 210 theatre. The performance is sensitive, tender, and tasteful and generally reflects credit on those involved. In my opinion it has not received the attention it deserves. The production premiered in 2007, and celebrated its 200th performance in 2009. I have had the good fortune to have seen the production on three separate occasions, but my remarks below are specifically on the last of these, which took place on Saturday October 16, 2010. Readers of this journal will not need much introduction to the drama itself, so I summarize briefly. One of the “dream” plays of Tang Xianzu (1550–1616), it was completed in 1598, which was the year the dramatist retired from officialdom completely. Exemplifying the emphasis he placed in his drama theory on “feelings” (qing 情), as opposed to theory or reason (li 理), it is a love story about the high-class teenage girl Du Liniang, who falls in love with the young scholar Liu Mengmei in a dream. After painting a portrait of herself and instructing her maid Chunxiang to hide it, she dies of love for him. Liu Mengmei finds and falls in love with the portrait, and his calling out to the image in the portrait brings her spirit to him. They make love and she gradually reveals to him that she is a ghost. She hints at how he can bring her back to life, and with some help he does so. Despite her three years in the grave, her beauty is unaffected by her death. In the often neglected last third of the play, he comes in top of the list in the imperial civil service examinations, their do-it-yourself marriage is approved of by the emperor, and Liniang’s return to life is accepted by her parents. The original drama is long and has a large cast of characters. In this production, the story is cut to the basics, with even quite important characters like Liniang’s stern Confucian father Du Bao 杜寶 omitted altogether. There are only four human characters, namely the lovers, Du Liniang’s maid Chunxiang, and the abbess of the Daoist temple where Liu and Du’s spirit carry on their love affair. If all fifty-five scenes of the original were played in full, that would take around twenty hours, but the Imperial Granary production runs for only two hours, without interval. It begins with the oft revived scene ten, “[Youyuan] Jingmeng” [遊園]驚夢 ([A Stroll in the Garden and] The Interrupted Dream) in which Du Liniang roams in a beautiful garden, falls asleep, and dreams of Liu Mengmei; it is a famous scene that the great Mei Lanfang 梅蘭芳 (1894–1961) often performed, starring in a film version towards the end of his life. I consider the producers have done a good job extracting the essence of the play. The following seven scenes of the production represent, more or less, scenes 2, MACKERRAS, Imperial Granary Mudan ting 211 14, 20, 24–26,1 28, 32, and 35, in that order. The only slightly tangential material left in this production comes when Abbess Shi talks of her own failed sex life in highly erotic language by way of cynical comment on the love affair between...