Review: Legend of White Snake
- By Rory Howard
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 20, 2016
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| The China National Peking Opera Company comes in London this week for a short run of shows as part of their Out of Asia season, where they perform Legend of White Snake on October 14 and 15. [Photo by Wang Zhiyong /China.org.cn] |
The China National Peking Opera Company proved that Peking opera isn’t just about the music with their astounding adaptation of Legend of White Snake at London’s Peacock Theatre on October 15, 2016.
The China National Peking Opera Company was in London this week for a short run of shows as part of their Out of Asia season, where they performed the history-based opera The General and the Prime Minister, and Legend of White Snake.
The General and the Prime Minister — which the opera company performed on October 13 — was interesting enough; Legend of White Snake, however, is such a good mix of comedy, romance, and showmanship that it’s a wonder China’s national opera are only performing it twice in London this year.
The story is a simple boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-kidnapped-by-a-monk, girl-saves-the-day story, which begins when Lady White, played by the opera’s number one leading-lady Li Shengsu, and Lady White’s maid, Greenie, take human form and explore the world.
The ladies meet the leading male character, Xu Xian, while escaping the rain. For Xu and Lady White it is love at first sight. Thankfully the romance plays out quickly, and by the beginning of scene three Lady White and Xu are already married. Now enter the antagonist, Fahai the monk, to throw a spanner in the works, or in this case a glass of special wine which turns Lady White into a snake, which frightens Xu to near death. From here in the show is quick paced action until the end.
What’s so great about this version of Legend of White Snake is that it is full of opportunity to showcase martial arts and acrobatics.
When Lady White goes to a sacred mountain in search of a medicine to revive her husband, the mountain is guarded not by stationary men but by colorful characters who leap and bound across the stage in such a way that you can imagine they are meant to be flying through the air. It looks very Crouching Tiger, Leaping Dragon, only without the wires!
In the second half, when Lady White goes to save her now revived husband from the clutches of Fahai, her battle is not a simple mock fight but a spectacle of some twenty people flipping through the air and cartwheeling across the stage dazzlingly quickly in a way that puts Shakespearean-style swordplay to shame
Worthy of most applause was Greenie fighting off spear-wielding soldiers. This scene verged on being a circus act as the spears were juggled across the stage and as Greenie kicks the spears through the air in deflection, only for the spear to be caught by another actor some ten meters away.
In recent years, Peking opera has come to London in the form of different performances but few if any stand close to this version of the Legend of White Snake, which so perfectly incorporates all that a Peking opera should be, and all in the right measure.
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