The Mandarin Playboy

From the company that brought us Oedipus Loves You, there now comes a production of J.M. Synge's legendary Playboy of the Western World set in the outskirts of Beijing. The production is in Mandarin with English supertitles and a Chinese cast. It already performed in China and caused some scandal because the women's skirts were so short. It was the first production of this play that I have ever seen, although I have read it multiple times. They captured some of the iconic moments while being overtly presentational at times. This seemingly blatant self-reflexive staging (not to mention the mirrors along the back side of the set which meant the audience was visible on-stage) allowed for an almost campy postmodern commentary and counterpoint to the moments of charged and sincere emotion. There was an oscillation throughout the performance that worked for me, perhaps because it is a text that is well known. As with most genre pieces, it's not about what will happen but HOW. And that is what was so fun about this production: how they made it work so well.

You can see stills from the production of Playboy on the Pan Pan webpage and hear songs (written by Dublin-based band Gordon Is a Mime) from Oedipus Loves You.