Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3159527/shakespeare-sonnets-adapted-stage-collaboration-where-actors
Lifestyle/ Arts & Culture

Shakespeare sonnets adapted for the stage in a collaboration where actors helped write the music

  • Lines from Shakespeare’s poems in Cantonese, Mandarin and English, set to music, invite audiences to project their feelings onto them rather than tell a story
  • Ata Wong, who wrote the play, #1314, says one feeling he wants it to inspire is hope, after recent difficult years in Hong Kong marked by ‘dramatic conflict’
A scene from #1314, a dramatisation of William Shakespeare sonnets created by Ata Wong for Théâtre de la Feuille. Photo: Théâtre de la Feuille

There is a scene in Shakespeare-inspired drama production #1314 in which a man sings gently about his love for a woman while standing directly on her supine body. It is one of many moments in the stage adaptation of the Bard’s sonnets that speak of the inevitable coexistence of beauty and ugliness in love and in life.

This work for Théâtre de la Feuille by its founder and artistic director, Ata Wong Chun-tat, was premiered in the Chinese capital, Beijing, five years ago, but the physical theatre group has adapted it for performance in the Jockey Club New Arts Power festival in Hong Kong, with local lyricists including Chow Yiu-fai translating some of the sonnets – 14-line poems – into Cantonese to be sung together with lines in English and Mandarin.

When Shakespeare wrote “For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love, and thou present’st a pure unstained prime” (Sonnet 70), he was writing about the darker aspects of love and messy human emotions that are universal, Wong says.

That cynicism is reflected in the numbers that Wong has picked for the title (there is no Sonnet 1314). When read in Mandarin or Cantonese, the numbers are a pun on the Chinese phrase meaning lifelong commitment. The hashtag turns a romantic declaration into a social media performance.

A scene from #1314, a dramatisation of William Shakespeare sonnets created by Ata Wong for Théâtre de la Feuille. Photo: Théâtre de la Feuille
A scene from #1314, a dramatisation of William Shakespeare sonnets created by Ata Wong for Théâtre de la Feuille. Photo: Théâtre de la Feuille

Describing #1314 as a musical, Wong says the final product is the fruit of a collaborative process that began in 2016. Back then, he was hoping to find answers to the meaning of love in Shakespeare’s sonnets. In the end, he realised that the words represented feelings, not logic, and asked the lead performers to help compose the music based on their own experiences and how they react to the words.

As seen during rehearsal, performers will interpret the sonnets through singing and dramatic movement. One scene opens with a ringing soprano note from actress Leung Hei-na, who trained as an opera singer. Dancers line up on either side of her as she walks through the stage, and then they scatter into seemingly chaotic movement, as if stung by her song, and end up writhing on the ground.

Théâtre de la Feuille performers during a rehearsal for #1314. Photo: Théâtre de la Feuille
Théâtre de la Feuille performers during a rehearsal for #1314. Photo: Théâtre de la Feuille

At the end of the scene another actress, Han Mei, sings while her back is arched over two other performers, who carry her weight as they inch down the stage.

Music director Charles Kwong Chin-wai has been tasked with bringing some unity to the various musical numbers. The contemporary composer says the way the cast contributed to the music makes this production unusual.

“It is not like a traditional way of creating an opera or musical, where a character is constructed by one mind. Instead, it is the personal history of the actors. The songs come from them,” he says.

His challenge has been in figuring out how to keep each song’s unique qualities while ensuring the performance as a whole doesn’t come across as too much of a medley, he says.

The creative process for #1314 also presents a new challenge for actor Jonathan Kung Chi-yip, who has studied with Wong and has experience of acting for the screen. Kung’s character represents a youth in his early twenties who sings about flirting and the confusion of young love.

The thing about performing poetry, Kung says, is that the performers are not trying to convey a clear message through classic storytelling. Instead the performance invites audiences to project their own feelings and interpretations onto the abstract expressions on stage.

A scene from #1314, written by Ata Wong for Théâtre de la Feuille. Photo: Théâtre de la Feuille
A scene from #1314, written by Ata Wong for Théâtre de la Feuille. Photo: Théâtre de la Feuille

“I think it is kind of like going to the gallery. People should be open and try to imagine and feel,” Kung says.

While much of the play will be up to the audience’s interpretation, one feeling Wong does want to inspire with his work is hope. The last few years have been difficult for Hong Kong and the city is rife with “dramatic conflict”, he says, referring to current political divisions. He says he hopes the play will offer an opportunity to the audience to step away from the anger and reflect on love.

“I would like to give hope to the audience,” he says. “I think we have suffered so many [tragic] situations during this time. And we all need a space to express and also rethink … everything.”

“#1314”, Théâtre de la Feuille, Auditorium, Sha Tin Town Hall, 8pm, Dec 24, 3pm, Dec 25-26.