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Culture Stage

Lu Xun Blossoms

LU XUN BLOSSOMS adapted and performed by the company, with Dean Gilmour, Michele Smith, Guo Hongbo, Adam Paolozza, Sihan Zhao and Wang Yangmeizi. (Theatre Smith-Gilmour/Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre/Luminato). At the Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles West). Opens Wednesday (June 15) and runs to June 18, Wednesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Saturday 2 pm. $46.50-$56.50. 416-368-4849, luminato.com. See listing


Theatre Smith-Gilmour has charmed audiences around the world with its staged versions of fiction by Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield and the Brothers Grimm.

Now the company turns to an artist almost unknown in the West, Chinese writer Lu Xun, for its latest, LU XUN blossoms. The production has toured to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Macao and Hong Kong and makes its North American debut at Luminato.

The project began when the company took their Chekhov productions to Shanghai, recalls Dean Gilmour. An invitation to create something with the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre led them to think about what author to tackle. They decided to use modern rather than ancient texts Lu Xun is seen as the father of modern Chinese writing.

“He wrote in the early years of the 20th century, when Communist ideas were spreading around the country,” says Gilmour. “He advocated change and the creation of a new China, but he was adamant about not discarding past culture. He also championed freedom of expression.”

Working with an ensemble of actors that includes three Canadians and three from Shanghai, Gilmour and partner Michele Smith stage five of Lu Xun’s tales, all of which deal with ordinary people pursuing their dreams while acknowledging the traditions that have been maintained for thousands of years.

“He writes with a humanity that you also find in Chekhov,” says Gilmour. “In fact, both were doctors as well as authors, writing at a time when their society was shifting in altogether new ways.”

The story that most struck the Canadians was about a New Year’s sacrifice, a narrative that focuses on a female servant whose history shifts dramatically from happiness to tragedy.

“She has to tell her story repeatedly to try to understand what is not understandable those around her can’t tolerate the repetition and want to forget the past.

“Coincidentally, the studies that Michele and I did in Paris with Jacques Lecoq were about reinventing the past in order to create something unique in the present. Lu Xun was grappling with similar issues in a changing China.”

Of course, learning went on in both directions while the ensemble worked on the production. As the Canadians discovered the nuances in Lu Xun’s writing, the Chinese actors were adapting to a new method of theatre creation.

“It was surprising how the physical work of Lecoq has a parallel in the miming with text that takes place in Chinese opera,” notes Gilmour.

“But our company develops a show in a unique fashion, collaborating with everyone involved to get inside material that originates as literature rather than drama. The big revelation for the Chinese actors was that they didn’t have to defer to what we wanted but could search along with us for ways to present the stories.”

How does Gilmour think Canadian audiences will react?

“Though the mythology that underlies the tales is specifically Chinese, every culture has some kind of myth and ritual. Maybe viewers here won’t understand all the nuances, but they’ll recognize and be able to relate to the nature and essence of that ritual.”

jonkap@nowtoronto.com

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