Presented by the Adelaide Festival Centre and the Song and Dance Theatre of Qingdao Performing Arts Group
Reviewed 4 September 2014
Based on the novel by Nobel laureate Mo Yan, Red Sorghum is a wonderful story of a young woman who inherits a distillery making sorghum liquour also known as kaoliang (similar to Japanese Sake). Made into an award winning film by Zhang Yi Mou, this dance theatre adaptation presented by the Song and Dance Theatre of Qingdao Performing Arts Group is a delight to the senses and is perhaps a closer rendition to Mo Yan’s story as per his own admission.
Told through narrative perspective of the grandchild, it is a beautiful and heart wrenching story in its simplicity
Leading up to her marriage to distillery owner Li Datou, lead character Jiu Er (or Grandma) is seduced by a bandit but a hired helper, (grandfather) fends him off.
An illicit affair ensues between the two and after the mysterious death of Li Datou, she takes over the distillery. ‘Grandfather’ drunkenly tries to bed her again but is thrown out and , in he is placed in a vat for three days to sober up.
Meanwhile, Jiu Er is kidnapped but returned after a ransom is paid.
Unhappy at being scorned, Grandfather returns to the distillery and urinates in the liquor that unexpectedly makes it taste better and makes the distillery successful.
The second half of the story takes a dramatic and tragic turn as the Sino-Japanese War begins and Japanese troops invade China and begin killing villagers including Arhat, Jiu Er’s respected foreman. She plots revenge and has her workers hide in the sorghum fields to avenge Arhat, but a distraction sees her shot and her workers massacred. Only the grandson and ‘grandfather’ survive. It is a powerful and moving piece of theatre that tells the story of an era that created more questions than answers.
Visually stunning with saturations of red, gold, blue/white porcelain and earth tones, Director Xu Rui has assembled an accomplished cast of performers who tell the story with the passion and emotion it deserves. From the opening narration, this is a tale of the tumultuous years of the Sino Japanese War told from the Chinese perspective. It is necessarily not to make any political points, but to tell a story of tumultuous times and appeasement.
The music, costumes and set are true to the era and give this production a breathtaking and visually spectacular element to it.
Meng Ning as Jiu Er, and FuBo Sun as Grandfather are cast perfectly in the lead roles and portrayed their characters with such power and intensity that they evoked emotions throughout. Jia Yu as Arhat, XiaoLin Chen as the child both give strong performances as do the other performers.
The final scenes were particularly well crafted, with the massacre being one of the most powerful scenes witnessed on stage that then led to the tribute to the massacred souls. Ghost money was offered to the gods in a funeral procession followed by a ritual pouring of sorghum liquor over all the villagers. They then walk off into the Japanese troops and are fired upon.
Given that this was a ‘one-night only’ performance on Thursday 4 Sep , if you missed it I’d recommend seeing the movie of the same name as it is as visually stunning as it is gripping. (it is available online or through video stores).
A beautiful adaption of a story that exhibits such simplicity yet so much power.
Reviewed by Darren Hassan
Twitter: @DazzHassan
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