Review-The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man-Hong Kong Rep
17-3-13
By: Stephanie Ip
There is no doubt that The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man, written by Paul Poon and directed by Roy Szeto, is a great play. All the elements are there: the intrigue, the power struggle, even the undercurrents of an analogy to modern day politics. I only had one question at the end of the show. How much of it was accurate?
Set in the Qing dynasty, The Emperor follows the life of An Dehai, a eunuch and a trusted aide of the powerful Empress Dowager Cixi, and how a high-tension power struggle between the royal family members ultimately led to his execution.
An was historically known to be corrupt and cunning, but Director Szeto begs to differ, saying that his only crime was making the mistake of standing on the wrong side of a bitter family feud. Lau Shau Ching was marvelous as An, giving the notoriously conniving and despicable man a more human side as we glimpse into his inner struggles, his lament over his inability to experience sexual pleasures and his acceptance that he was but a pawn in court intrigues.
The play also offered us much insight into the relationships among the two Empresses, the Emperor, his uncle Yixin and governor Ding Baozhen. However patchy my Chinese history is, I can’t shake off the feeling that the play portrayed Cixi as a much nicer person than she really was.
That really is my only complaint about the play. Cixi, who effectively controlled China for 48 years, had been historically portrayed as a ruthless, self-serving and conservative woman who single-handedly brought down the imperial system of China. In the play however, Cixi, played by Pang Hang Ying, was portrayed as powerless and ineffective. The question wasn’t merely why she failed to save An. The real question is whether the real Cixi would bother to save him in the first place?
But historical context aside, I loved everything about the play. The set design was most spectacular, and the stage directions were almost like a dance. I particularly liked the lead up to An’s secret trial. It takes some mad skill to be able to portray the complex correspondence between the two courts so simply and so clearly.
The comic relief interjected periodically throughout the play was also both witty and innovative. Who could forget Chan Suk Yi’s entrance? A play on the words Ding Baozhen, Chan entered via a rising platform from the orchestra pit, with a butcher’s knife one hand and a dead chicken in the other, and proceeded to make Kung Pao chicken… for real. As the smell of stir-fried garlic and chili wafted up towards the audience, we all wondered if we were hallucinating. As the smoke tendrils curled up towards the overhead spotlights, I wondered if we were going to get rained on at any second.
Laughs aside, the play does raise graver topics and the ending is a sad one. An did some pretty bad things in his life, but he was flawed just like anyone else. I rooted for him even though I knew he was going to die, and I know I’m not the only one.
The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man is playing at the Shouson through March 31st. For more information, click here.
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