Review | Hong Kong performance of Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe was impressive, but not as ‘complete’ as it claimed to be
- Hong Kong Arts Festival’s Chinese opera highlight was a ‘complete’ version of Tang Xianzu’s Ming dynasty classic Peony Pavilion, by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe
- Although deftly performed and produced, it lacked depth and did not present the masterpiece of world literature in its entirety, as the title suggested it would
When a production trumpets the words “complete version” in its title, then credits the director and another playwright with “trimming and editing” the script, you have to ask what exactly the definition of “complete” is.
The Chinese opera highlight of the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival was the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe (Skot)’s new production of The Peony Pavilion, Tang Xianzu’s Ming dynasty classic staged in three instalments at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre.
Billed as “complete” in promotional materials and multiple times in the programme book (I stopped counting after six), the production promised an epic experience far exceeding the four-scene excerpt in the standard xiqu – traditional Chinese theatre – repertory, with the full context of Liu Mengmei and Du Liniang’s romance within the original text’s 55 episodes.
It also mentioned that “over the years, multiple generations of artists from the Skot have taken on different versions of the play”.
This last point, though, begs for further clarification.
