Show puts contemporary China art scene at forefront of Olympiad in Vancouver
By admin on 2014-12-26

Against a backdrop of the dynamic contemporary China art scene that has exploded into the global consciousness in recent years, Vancouver theater-goers are currently getting a chance to experience modern Shanghai, as seen through a westerner's eyes, in the presentation of Robert Lepage's The Blue Dragon.

Running for 22 performances as one of the main events of the Cultural Olympiad, a festival of arts and culture that runs parallel to the Canadian city's hosting of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the Quebec theater master likens Le Dragon Bleu to "more of a spinoff than a sequel" to his highly acclaimed 1985 work The Dragons' Trilogy.

Picking up from that work which examined the cross-cultural interaction of Canada's prominent Chinatowns in Vancouver, Toronto and the playwright's Quebec City home base, Lepage reintroduces Trilogy's protagonist, Pierre Lamontagne, now 20 years older and living in Shanghai as an art dealer.

Co-written with Marie Michaud, life gets complicated for Pierre played by LePage himself, with the arrival of Claire, an old Montreal art school acquaintance who is here to adopt a baby. The reunion is made more difficult with the presence of Xiao Ling, an ambitious young artist who Pierre represents and who is also his lover.

It is easy to see why Lepage, who has tried his hand at Shakespeare, acted in the film Jesus of Montreal and collaborated with both Peter Gabriel and Cirque du Soleil, among others, in a long and varied career, was attracted by the lure of Shanghai. The city's dynamic art scene of modern day started in the dilapidated and spent factory and warehouses along the Suzhou Creek that proved instrumental in providing cheap spaces for such now famous artists as Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang and Wang Guangyi, among others.

Lepage, who spent time in Shanghai three years ago researching The Blue Dragon, which opened in France in April 2008 and has also played in Ireland, the United States and Spain, said he was very much inspired by the foreigners, mainly French, Swiss and a few Canadians, who helped cultivate the country's "new wave of contemporary artists" in the early 1990s by opening art galleries.

"Now these pieces are drawing the highest prices in the contemporary art world right now. China's art is well known and the market has exploded," said the 52-year-old. "With the opening of China to the rest of the world artists are exposing and showing their stuff all over. That's due to a lot of courageous people who 15 or 20 years ago went to Moganshan Lu and Beijing and really kind of helped contemporary artists to their first exhibitions."

"The show is not exactly about that but it is inspired by these people. It is almost missionary work in China."

As the founder of Ex Machina, his multidiscipline production company, Lepage makes full use of the modern technology in The Blue Dragon's impressive two-level set.

As the changing set takes in scenes such as Pierre's studio, a modern nightclub and an airport terminal, the viewer is essentially taken to China via projections of satellite maps of Shanghai, outtakes of Chinese television and shots of the city's iconic skyline along The Bund and the Huangpu River, among others.

Tai Wei Foo, who plays Xiao Ling, calls the shows over-the-top use of electronic images fitting as the technologies "spiced up the whole effect of the acting."

For the Singaporean whose grandparents came from Hainan Island, the project has been a crash course in acting. As a trained dancer who had never acted before, she says the biggest challenge of portraying Xiao was in getting the correct character because in dance shows the movement moves the proceedings while acting is more dialogue.

"Xiao Ling is a very strong girl. She has a strong determination to pursue a career as an artist," said Tai of her character. "When she meets Pierre Lamontagne he opens the doors for her in a way to pursue her dream. So by depending on him she can show at a gallery more often and she can still get around and get to know more gallery artist managers."

She added that while Pierre opens many door for Xiao Ling, unfortunately when she meets something fairly tragic in her life the whole situation changes for the three main characters.

"It is really about tradition versus modernism, how China is seen through the eyes of the younger generation of the artists nowadays." With the show set to next play Montreal in June, Lepage adds he would love to have the Dragon go to China to see the reaction.

"There seems to be some kind of openness to our vision of today 's challenges in China. We have always been very respectful to the Chinese culture," he said.

"I remember the days where there were a lot of students at Shanghai University, 10, 15 years ago, who were doing masters degrees on the Dragons' Trilogy that they had never seen. There was a big interest. I was invited a lot to give conferences for my work in China that nobody (in the country) had ever seen. They were thirsty for new ways to do theater."