After 15 years, playwright revisits play set in turn-of-20th-century China
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2019 18:00:10 +0000
China Doll
When: Oct. 17-26
Where: Gateway Theatre
Tickets: from $29, at gatewaytheatre.com
Marjorie Chan is directing her debut play.
Chan originally wrote China Doll as a radio play for the CBC. A producer suggested she adapt the 90-minute result (which was supposed to be 20 minutes long) for the stage, which she did, and it debuted in 2004. Fifteen years later, and after authoring several other plays as well as libretti, she is revisiting the piece for its Western Canadian premiere at Gateway Theatre.
Set in early 20th century Shanghai, China Doll tells the story of Su-Ling, a young woman of marriageable age, and her struggle for emancipation.
At the time of the play’s setting, foot-binding was at the peak of its popularity in China. Chan was inspired by a visit to an exhibit of the so-called “lotus” shoes women wore.
“Most of the women had bound feet to varying degrees,” she said. The practice of foot-binding “became a huge part of the inspiration” for the play.
Another source of inspiration was A Doll’s House. Su-Ling learns to read thanks to a local merchant and comes across Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play. In her research, Chan discovered that the Ibsen piece was translated into Mandarin at the turn of the 20th century. (China Doll will be performed in English, with subtitles in Chinese characters.)
“It had a similar effect (in China) that it had in Europe,” she said. “People, and women in particular, read it and related to Nora’s emancipation.” Nora, the main character, walks out on her family and a prescribed, confining life.
The Gateway Theatre production stars Jovanni Sy, Donna Soares, Manami Hara, and Jennifer Tong as Su-Ling.
“She’s extraordinary,” Chan said of Tong. “She has a bravery and curiosity and professionalism that will keep her working in the business. She has an easy access to the narrative, even though it’s set a hundred years ago. The fact that she can dive into that role and world with such ease and confidence is extraordinary.”
Chan’s plays have been performed all over the world, including Hong Kong, where she has also directed. She has received nine Dora Award nominations, and won four. China Doll received a Governor General’s Literary Award nomination.
When it was first produced, Chan played the lead role “almost as a default,” she said.
“There was not another actor who could really have played it,” she said. “And now we’re in a time where we can have auditions. And there were multiple talented people for all of the roles.”
Since writing the play, Chan has only revisited it when producing theatre companies contact her to ask questions.
“If I get asked the same question more than once I will make a permanent change in the script. Then it was translated into Cantonese in 2017 for a Hong Kong production, and so I engaged with a translator more on some of these questions. That’s really the version that’s onstage here at Gateway.”
Looking back on the play, she said, she can see that it was “written by an artist and woman of a different time. It’s nice to have some distance and perspective. At the same time, it’s luxurious to be able to engage in something so in-depth. Your starting place is much further along. I did the research 15 years ago, and that’s still living within me. But my skill as a director has progressed, I would hope, in that time.”