Chinese Traditional Theatre and Shakespeare

In the spring of 1986, Shanghai played host to China's first Shakespeare Festival. Sixteen plays were produced, four of whichMacbeth, Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, and Much Ado About Nothing were adapted and performed as traditional Chinese operas. Three opera styles were used: kunqua from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces,yuejub from Zhejiang Province, and huangmeixic from Anhui Province. For the first time in China, Shakespearean scholars, traditional operatic performers, orchestras, experts on foreign literature, and audiences of local operas were brought together in the theatre. The festival provided a forum for discussing not only the plays and their performances, but also the wider issues involved in bringing together Chinese and Western cultures. The four operatic productions of Shakespeare staged in Shanghai can be classified roughly into three types: those which emphasize the foreignness of the plays, those which fully sinicize the plays, and those which synthesize Chinese and Western elements both textually and theatrically. Theyueju version of Twelfth Night is of the first type, characterized by distinctly foreign characters, costumes, makeup, manners, and gestures. It modifies the conventions of traditional yueju. For instance, the front curtain is not used, and a black velvet curtain forms a backdrop; the scenery is simple but in its design still manages to convey the opulence of the baroque style; and the stylized movements and gestures of the form are dispensed with. This adaptation, appreciated by some members of the Chinese audience and disapproved of by others, presents a serious challenge to traditional opera. Productions of the second type employ wholly Chinese stories and

Art · Literature · Visual arts · History · Philippine History and Culture · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism · Theatre and Performance Studies

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