The Script Road has always been a celebration of great literary figures both past and present, and this year it will take time to recognize the work of Lu Xun, an iconic Chinese writer of the early 20th century, who was influential in the May 4th Movement in 1919, an uprising of Chinese youth protesting against China’s elite and their acceptance of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles after WWI, which allowed the Japanese to occupy territories in Shandong province.
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of this significant populist movement, which came to shape the political landscape of the country for decades, local theatre group Rolling Puppets will present their play Drug at the Macau Literary Festival, inspired by Lu Xun’s short story of the same name (sometimes also entitled ‘Medicine’).
In the story, a revolutionary is martyred for the cause, but in their ignorance and superstition, the local people use his blood to try to cure diseases.
“The puppet in our play is metaphorical,” explains Teng Teng Lam, one of the founders of Rolling Puppets. “The puppet is a sick child, always coughing, but because his parents are very superstitious they feed him blood of a revolutionary in steamed buns… this is actually a real thing that people used to do. The people think that the blood of the revolutionary can act like a drug to heal the sick child. In the same way, the words of the revolutionary can act like medicine to heal a sick society. Lu Xun was commenting that society is sick and if it is not fed the right thing, it will die.”
The performance is set across seven scenes, jumping back and forth between the time of Lu Xun’s novel, and a contemporary setting in which a young man is trying to sell his father’s old restaurant to make money, but faces opposition from the local staff who have been employed there for many years.
“We constructed a new story based around Lu Xun’s original,” explains Kevin Chio, Teng Teng’s partner and co-founder of the group. “It is a reflection on how we treat revolutionaries, those people who really dare to say out loud what the problem is and drive change. But how we treat them now is similar to how we treated them 100 years ago, and we invite the audience to reflect on this.”
Kevin and Teng Teng established Rolling Puppets in 2014, after they both finished studying their Master’s degrees at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Both were working in full-time professions – Teresa as an actress and a designer, and Kevin for Fuji Xerox – but decided to dedicate themselves full-time to their passion for theatre.
“We talk about sensitive social issues, gender issues, corruption, media censorship, self-censorship, and combine these themes with Chinese literature,” notes Kevin “We look at how writers saw their society in their time.”
“We invite everyone to come and talk about serious things together, but in a dark humour kind of way,” adds Teng Teng.
The couple write the scripts, make the puppets, and develop the whole productions themselves. They have previously put on shows at The Ox Warehouse, and in Black Box theatres in The Old Courthouse, and have performed in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Prague. In February they will take their show to Norway. And while there are many challenges to producing theatre in a small city like Macau, the couple feel that it is worth it and their work is appreciated.
“The audiences were initially surprised with the way we play with the literature and puppetry and social context and said “You are so brave to say that”. Now we keep trying to do literary adaptations and documentary theatre that really connects with the local audience,” says Kevin.
“Macau audiences are very open and actually expect new things from us,” adds Teng Teng.
With the significant changes that have happened in Macau over the past decade, the couple see parallels with Lu Xun’s time.
“We are facing an era of change, a bit like Lu Xun,” says Kevin.
“Lu Xun was provoking transformation but we want people to stop and think about what new things are coming and what we should try to protect,” comments Teng Teng. “It seems like this generation is just consuming the heritage that was passed on to us by our ancestors. We have to think about what we need to preserve.”
Rolling Puppets – Drug
The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival.
22-24 March
Navy Shipyard
+
The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival returns in March for its eighth edition, this year with a focus on the beautiful rhyme, rhythm and expression of poetry, and its ability to cross over and inspire other art forms like theatre, music, cinema and visual arts. The Script Road is inviting a number of renowned poets, particularly from China and Portuguese-speaking countries, to present engaging and informative workshops and discussion panels.
Salvador Sobral and his “small change” in the Portuguese music scene,
in concert at the Venetian on March 17
Born in 1977, Tong Chong has been an active figure in the local art scene, known for his works of painting, paper-cutting, wood sculpture and seal carving. Late last year he was commissioned to design the official poster for the 8th edition of The Script Road-Macau Literary Festival.
As this year’s The Script Road turns its focus to poetry and its broader relationship to the arts, two exhibitions of local artists will be presented that demonstrate this notion very well, one by Alexandre Marreiros, and the other by Crystal Chan. Crystal has been living in New York since 2015 and graduated from the School of Visual Arts. She had her first solo exhibition last year at Gallery 456 of The Chinese American Arts Council and is currently back home to participate in the Macau Literary Festival.
+
