Review-Three Tall Women-Hong Kong Rep
14-7-14
By: Winnie Lai
I'm looking at HK Rep’s poster: there are three women against the blue sky background, all looking up in one direction, all with pride in their eyes – do you realize its symbolism? Are they proud or are they left without choice in life? Are they controlled by destiny or is it their own free will? The three women talk, argue and despise one another - but what does this tell us about life itself?
Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women tells the tale of a dying woman reflecting on her past life, pondering on her beliefs and struggles, on the absurdity and the unexpectables of existence. The dying woman, lacking the capacity for sense and forgiveness, reminds us that the horror of living is not about the inability to pursue happiness, but something else….
Whilst interspersed with comedy, the overall tone of this production is rather solemn, requiring the audience’s full attention and sympathy to grasp fully the deeper meaning of the work. It is a challenge, certainly. Nevertheless, I was deeply impressed by the performance of the three tall women leading the play: May Fu, Pang Hang Ying and Tan Hui Lei Karrie who - as the 26-year old ‘good girl’, the 52-year old ‘wife and mother’, and the 92-year-old dementia patient - come together as the ONE woman, their portrayal of this character so torn and yet so real. Watching them was a very powerful experience for me, with an emotional delivery when needed and, overall, great subtlety to their performances.
It is not a typical female story promoting love and strength of womanhood and motherhood. However, as a tableau of expectation, disappointment and acceptance, this play is a must-see.
“I can’t remember what I can’t remember… From the minute we are born, we are dying…” - such paradoxes permeate the play’s text. The play itself gives no straight-forward answers. Instead, its deconstructed narrative presents a woman who simultaneously faces growing up, giving up and getting fed up with life, and asks whether we could ever actually learn about real happiness at all in the process.
An especially innovative feature of this production is David Kaplan's stage pictures, in the last scene, it gives the audience a bird's eye’s view of the deathbed. It was a brilliant device for locating the three tall women as dead or imaginary characters surveying the ‘real’ woman from heaven or another dimension.
The only aspect of the production which could improve is the lighting. There are several important moments in the play, in particular Scene 2, where I could barely see the facial expressions of the speakers due to the stark side-lighting.
Three Tall Women is a play which, ultimately, asks how we might present life ‘as it is’ without infusing our own evaluation of it. The strength of this production lies in the way such quintessential thematic complexities are captured so compellingly.
Three Tall Women is playing at the Shouson Theatre through July 27th. For more information, click here.
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