Chinese productions of Shakespeare return to the Globe in London
Three years after first shows in Chinese, staged during London Olympics, Hong Kong and Chinese companies return with productions of Macbeth - a world premiere - and Richard III
It is natural enough that there is considerable local interest in the Shakespeare's Globe touring production of Hamlet, coming to the Lyric Theatre in September.
More surprising, perhaps, is the enthusiasm of the Globe's management for presenting productions of Shakespeare in London by theatre companies from Hong Kong and China.
Actors from Hong Kong speaking Cantonese, and from China speaking Putonghua, have already trodden the boards at the Southwark reconstruction of Shakespeare's "wooden O", and both the theatre companies concerned - Hong Kong's Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio and the National Theatre of China - have been invited back. The latter reprises its production of Richard III from July 23 to 25, and the former will be performing Macbeth from August 17 to August 23.
"In 2012 we invited both companies for a big festival called Globe To Globe, which we had when the Olympics were in London, and we were looking for Shakespeare productions from all over the world in different languages" says Shakespeare's Globe executive producer, Tom Bird.
"We knew a little bit about the Titus Andronicus that the Tang Shu-wing company were already doing, and we talked to the National Theatre of China at the same time because we knew they'd done some Shakespeare. So, in 2012, we ended up commissioning a production of Richard III from the National Theatre of China and bringing Titus Andronicus over from Hong Kong." ( Titus Andronicus 2.0 will be restaged in this city in September.)
The performances were well received, and attracted a substantial number of ethnically Chinese theatre-goers, according to Bird. "It is a very varied audience, which we're proud of, and we try to engage with the Chinese community in London and further afield in Britain. Whenever we bring work in from abroad we're very keen that there is a part of the audience for whom the language of the production is their native language, and who can understand it in that direct way. It's the best kind of audience development," he says.