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| Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Theatre > Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress by Singapore Repertory Theatre A Slice of HistoryWriter: Yang Ming Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) produces for the third time, Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress with Kit Chan at the helm. Yang Ming catches up with this historical musical. Esplanade Theatre, 8 September - 30 September 2006, 8pm & 3pm (Matinee on weekend).Viewed on 9 September 2006, 3pm   The historical records shows Empress Dowager Cixi as a manipulative Dragon Lady who stubbornly clung onto Chinese superiority that tragically ended the glorious reign of the Qing Dynasty. A magnificent figure in the political world in the 19th century, she hid behind multiple layers of court ritual and etiquette. Foreigners regarded her as too smart yet conservative for her own good. Debating against this belief, Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress attempts another side of Cixi simply because her character complexity was a wonderment to those who never figured her out - mainly everyone else. For at one time, she had been Yehenara, a young girl who was picked as a concubine for the Emperor but was left behind by all her men. Unfortunately, this romantic view fails to convince especially against a ingrained understanding of historical figures, especially one as large as Cixi. Kit Chan as Cixi lacked a domineering presence but really, her singing was the real deal especially in "My Only Chance (Reprise)" with the little Emperor Tung Chih played by Presslee Chng. Leigh McDonald as Kate Carl is impressive - her chemistry with Hal Fowler who plays her love interest as the British journalist, George Morrison, explored in the duet "Why Love" left me spell bounded. Hossan Leong and Sebastian Tan buoyed up the production comedy as Record Keeper 1 and Record Keeper 2 respectively. Dwayne Tan acted and sang well as Emperor Kuang Hsu in a brave solo "Blood in the Streets". One part that caught my attention were the two white silk cloths that flew across the stage that magically revealed the new emperor. Unfortunately, the performance was marred by 15 minutes of technical glitches. In Chan's singing midway, I believed her wireless mike had accidentally hit the ground - the ensuing disruption was slight but audible. Although this production did not choose to recreate memorable true events like the palace coups during the reign of Emperor Kuang Hsu, these things might have been helpful in treating the main character. Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress remains a potential work in progress. Cheers to the effort by the cast and the company to sustain in what could be Singapore's other long time musical. Interview with Steven Dexter, Director of Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress   Yang Ming : "In Sterling Seagrave's book,'Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China', it was said that the actual details of Yehenara's life was so sparse that biographers and journalists found it necessary to invent them."To what extent has the script been innovated to suit the production? Steven: All the historical facts are naturally correct. The only thing we invented for the production was the relationship between Morrison and Kate. There were actually 3 journalists working out in China at the time, one of them George Morrison. We just amalgamated all three into one. All the Kate Carl depiction is real and based around Carl's book. As far as we know, Kate however has never met George Yang Ming : Has the criticisms from the last run of the production been advantageous for the third run of Forbidden City? Steven: I'm not quite sure what you mean by advantageous but every one has a right to entitle to his or her own opinion. We never set out to write a history lesson on China but naturally in order to understand her life there were certain events one had to cover. I am very proud of the fact that the musical is a fast moving and paced production. In all my years of directing I have never seen an audience so riveted to the stage as with the audiences for Forbidden City. No one dared shift in their seat in case they miss something. I would definitely love to have the time to see Yehenara ruling more or develop the relationship between her and her son but we simply don't have the time. We are leaving that to an audiences' imagination. What annoys me more is when the critics get it wrong. It was quoted in one of the reviews that we rushed through history in three hours. Actually the running time of the show is just over two hours. If it was three hours, believe me you would get more but I just don't think an audience today want a long laborious show. The heart of the show is the relationship between Carl and the Empress with Morrison acting as the antagonist. I feel this aspect works perfectly. [Compare this with] Evita or other musicals based on real peoples' lives - they unfortunately don't follow a neat musical theatre structure. In trying to be true to Yehenara, we didn't want to change history in order to make for a linier story line. I know we covered a civil war and the invasion of the allies in one song "Blood in the Street" but one could say the same for Les Miserables that rattles through the story at great pace. If we added, we would have to lose elements and when the show is remounted, there are some things we would look at again. Believe me, I am a perfectionist in my work and its details. I will attempt to resolve some of these issues. But like everything in life, you can't please everyone. I think the standing ovation we are getting at the Esplanade is a proof that the general public is clearly enjoying the show.
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