Macbeth makes a dramatic impact
Macbeth, performed by Shakespeare4All, Cultural Centre, last Sunday.
Asking 95 students from local primary schools to perform Macbeth to an audience of 1,700 in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre was surely an ambition too far. But not for director and theatre educator Vicky Ooi. She cast a spell that many would regard as impossible.
The children, headed by St Paul's Co-educational Primary School's Brandon Wong, 12, as Macbeth, and Natalie Shieh, 10, of Diocesan Girls' Junior School, as his wife, performed with exceptional confidence. Most importantly, they relished the experience.
Their performances were matched by Ooi's innovative East-meets-West interpretation of the play. School drama was left behind when Beijing Opera actors displayed their acrobatic skills in key murder and fight scenes and An Fenying, robed in black and red, plumbed the depths of Lady Macbeth's anguish through her silent opera movements. Benjamin Robinson didn't miss a beat in the rousing musical backdrop.
This was Shakespeare with Chinese characteristics. But the fusing of styles did not end there. Ooi employed a melting pot, from imperial Chinese to post-modern, evident from the minute her witches arrived on stage sporting fluorescent wigs, dark glasses and mobile phones.
The organisers, headed by Michael Tien Puk-sun as chairman of Shakespeare4All, did their part to ensure that this was no ordinary schools production, but a society event, lavishly funded by its sponsors and attended by the most senior dignitaries in education. Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, education minister, was the first to offer his congratulations.
The performance demonstrated that drama is an excellent vehicle for improving English. After 100 hours of rehearsals these young actors could clearly distinguish the words 'hell' and 'hail' - which few could do at the beginning.
Education urgently needs an injection of drama, not only for the language but all the other benefits.
But it would be a mistake for primary schools to regard Shakespeare4All as the only or best vehicle. Many more students need to be involved than the handful selected from each of the 13 schools involved, most elite names.
Ooi chose Shakespeare because she regards his works as the best. But there need to be opportunities for primary children to participate in a wide range of drama, including the less challenging.
Macbeth itself was an odd choice. Witches and battles may appeal six-year-olds. But its depths of emotions - that should move young people to regard Shakespeare as more than something to 'do' at school - may be best explored by secondary students.
Drama shouldn't be confined to grand productions but worked into the curriculum for all ages, right up to being an HKCEE and A-level option, and a vibrant part of extra-curricular school life.
Shakespeare4All must be congratulated for putting drama in the limelight. Now it needs to be followed by drama for all.
