is a stage play "The Life and Times of Michael K" directed by South African playwright and director Laura Ford, in collaboration with the Tony Award winner South African Puppet Troupe "The Handheld Universe", as a repertoire for the 2024 Shanghai Jing'an Modern Theater Valley. , will be performed for 4 consecutive performances at Shanghai Yunfeng Theater from May 10th to 12th.
The play is adapted from the novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee. It will present to the Chinese audience an epic work that represents the top strength of the contemporary South African theater stage and combines puppetry, acting, film and music. Using a unique art form in which "people" and "dolls" share the stage, it tells touching stories about resilience and hope.
The stage play "The Life and Times of Michael K" is adapted from the 1983 Nobel Prize winner Coetzee's novel of the same name. It tells the life of a humble man, Michael K, in the dystopian civil war during apartheid South Africa. The protagonist, Michael, was born with a cleft lip and was constantly scolded for being different, but he insisted on building a carriage to carry his sick mother back to his hometown until his death. However, their journey is full of difficulties and they face various challenges... On the stage, the audience will be presented with an extraordinary journey through South Africa's materially and morally depleted landscape, presenting an epic that touches the heart's cold beauty.
In the play, the characters of mother and son are presented as puppets by the Qiankun Puppet Theater Company, whose artificial bodies highlight their outsider status and are in sharp contrast to the real actors. Director Laura Ford deftly blends bodies and puppets to create a unique, playful and poetic stage effect. The subtle movements, breathing, nodding, and coughing between the nine actors and the puppets are perfectly presented on the stage. The puppeteers use their exquisite skills to give life to the puppets, making them no longer cold objects but living creatures full of breathing and emotion. On the stage, the puppets of Michael K and his mother seemed to be possessed by their souls, and their movements and expressions deeply touched the hearts of the audience.
Another work of the troupe that is more familiar to Chinese audiences is the stage play "War Horse", which was co-produced with the British National Theater in 2007. It has completed 4,500 performances around the world, and the number of audiences has exceeded 8 million. From 2015 to 2018, the Chinese version of "War Horse" toured in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Harbin, Xi'an and other cities, and once became a phenomenal IP work. The puppeteer controlled the breathing "war horse" and used lifelike limbs in the theater to show the audience the superb skills and stage imagination of modern puppet performance.
When talking about why she chose to use puppets to represent Michael K and his mother, Laura said that this is a way to tell philosophy and deep meanings. Through the non-verbal expression of puppets, the audience can focus more on the characters. the emotion and the connotation of the story. In addition, the use of puppets also makes the character of Michael K appear more fragile. The audience can feel his living and mental state through the puppet's skeletal body.
Laura once said in her director's notes: "Coetzee chose an extremely ordinary man as the protagonist of the novel. Michael K is a man marginalized by society, not because of his social or political status, but because His disability. However, Michael K has a unique ability to find his own freedom; he does not succumb to slavery, politics, and chooses to stay away from any camp. The beauty of Coetzee's work is that it is layered. The metaphor, poetry and meaning make it ideally suited to a rich theatrical stage, thus combining puppetry, film, literature, live performance, bodywork, and music.”
It is reported that the play has been produced by all South Africans. Created by the team, it premiered at the Dusseldorf Theater in Germany in 2019. It was invited to perform at the Edinburgh Festival in 2023 and won the Scottish Fringe First Award. "The Scotsman", "British Theater Guide", "Broadway World" and "Everything Theatre" all gave the show five-star reviews. The New York Times called it “astonishingly poetic.” Since then, the play has won the South African Cape Theater Awards for Best Production and Best Puppetry Design, and has been nominated for Best Lighting Design, Best Costume Design, Best Ensemble Performance, Best Sound Design, Original Music, Soundscape or Live Performance (Original music and sound design).
Text丨Reporter He Jing
Pictures丨Stills
