G. is upstairs, trying to sort out the house now that the painters have left… while I’m in the basement office, supposedly studying for the next ITIL V3 exam in the series. Randy, the painter, and his assistant really did do a lovely job; Top Notch Painters in Edmonton, if you ever need someone. They did finish, finally, on Thursday… the wallpaper removal caused them huge problems which delayed them by a full day. Now G. is putting back the switchplates and rehanging some pictures. Why this evening? Well, Thursday night was at the theatre, Friday night was at dinner with friends, Saturday was spent buying stuff, including a very chic storage unit for the kitchen nook from IKEA, followed by me trying to quietly assemble it while G. napped, and today was spent at the Citadel, again, this time watching Marty Chan’s The Forbidden Phoenix.
This incarnation of The Forbidden Phoenix is really quite good, and should be seen… the story itself has matured some since Ben Henderson and Running With Scissors Theatre first worked with Mr. Chan on it, a few years ago. It has become more comfortable in the wrapper of traditional Chinese opera in its music and lyrical content, but has traded in a bit of the theatrical tricks and magic that does help to define Chinese opera… Robert Walsh, as musical director, has done some really nice things to support Ron Jenkin’s direction in the way he has handled the ‘westernization’ of the Chinese operatic musical form. And John Ullyatt as the Monkey King was very good… I must say, and G. was quite annoyed that I threatened to say it out loud, that during one of his first moments on stage, and at various other places throughout, Mr. Ullyatt reminded me of a young Bob Hope in some of his ‘Road’ movies. There are mannerisms, affectations, little quirks to his performance that immediately made me think of Hope…
I have to admit that I missed some of the ‘subtleties’ that were woven into the story, regarding the move to the industrialized west (read ‘Canada and the building of the railroad’), the growing Maoist influences in the China that the Monkey King left behind. I suppose that if Leslie Frankish, the set and costume designer, had sacrificed some of those elegantly clean lines, she might have been able to beat us over the head with the symbolism. Thank goodness, she doesn’t. Well, she does… in the rendering of the Iron Dragon… and then it all tumbles into place.
And I would have liked to see what she would have come up with if she were told that the waterfall/river and the journey were her challenge, and not the lighting designer’s. She does so well with fabic… I sure that she could make something pretty special out of the traditional Chinese opera forms for water and movement…
It is my understanding that this show will eventually move to the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, in the early spring of 2009. Take a kid to see it…
Hopefully the link will work so you can pull it up to read…
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