Moon Plays
25-9-12
In honor of Mid-Autumn festival we went on the search for great plays with the moon as a central figure or theme in them. Mid Autumn festival is a Chinese festival that celebrates the harvest traditionally and the full moon. The presence of the full moon in the moon cakes is represented in the yellow yolk. Mid-Autumn festival is also associated with the legend of Houyi, who shot the suns and with the help of a rabbit was re-united with his dead wife on the moon once a year. (Hence the rabbit shape on the moon.)
Here are 5 plays we found with the moon in them for your Mid-Autumn play readings. Surprisingly, we did not find a single English adaptation of the legend of Houyi available. Perhaps one of you should get on that...
1) Kaguyahemi (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) - Japan - Taketori Monogatari
A similar story to Houyi. Kaguyahemi is the Japanese legend of why there is a shape on the moon. Kaguyahemi is a beautiful princess who is born in a bamboo forest and adopted by a family in Kyoto. At the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she grows up to be the most beautiful woman in the land but cannot marry anyone because she must go back to the moon. Soldiers from the moon come out of the bamboo forrests and take her back. She promises her adopted mother that she will see her again once a month in the form of a rabbit, (and that's why you see the shape on the moon). Sesame Street even did a version of this legend in their 1989 Big Bird Goes to Japan special. This play sometimes appears under the title: Kaguyahemi: the Moon Princess.
2) Goodnight Moon, the Musical - USA - Margaret Wise Brown
A musical version of the sweet pre-school book. It's all about night-time rituals and loving your family. Music is very melodic and great for little kids. Show is only about 25 minutes long. Perfect for little-little kids who have a very short attention span but will love the theatricality of the night sky presentations in the play. CD is great for nap-time as the music is very sleep inducing (even for adults.) Zzzzzz....
3) Legends of the Earth and Sky - many countries - Joseph Bruchac
This is a short 35 minute children's play. It tells legends from all over the world and talks about the sky from a mythological standpoint. Why there are waves, day and night times, rainbows, why the moon changes shape. It's very cute and accessible for kids of young ages.
4) Midsummer Night's Dream- UK- William Shakespeare
All the craziness that happens in Shakespeare's tale happens on a full harvest moon. Throughout history there have been wives tales of people acting crazy when the full moon hits. We haven't seen any actual occurence of this in Hong Kong other than people eating too many mooncakes. I would love to see an east meets west adaptation of Midsummer centraled around Mid-Autumn festival. There are so many things about the festival that would fit beautifully within the context of this play. The use of lanterns, the over-indulgence, the bonding of a family, partying during the night time, and I would love to see if they could fit the fire dragon into it.
5) Blood Wedding- Spain- Federico Garcia Lorca
A Spanish tragedy by Lorca, Blood Wedding is a story about love and honor in a family. The moon which is an actual character/symbol in this play is traditonally played by a woman. She appears in Act 3 in the play as a very calm but powerful symbol. She is angry, lonely and wants "the blood to rain out of people's houses for shutting me out at night." Nature itself is a huge symbol in Lorca's play as the elements are conspiring against the protagonists in the story. The bride character is sacrificed to the moon to appease her fury at the end of the play. Not for the faint of heart, Blood Wedding is a fabulous play for those looking for something that is deliciously tragic and bloody.
Comments
Jo
Wendy Tsang recommended your blog to me, I'm so glad she did. You write about theatre and Hong Kong in a really casual and fun way. I'm teaching my students about blogs right now and I'm going to show them yours. Hope you don't mind.
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