Peacock Theatre, London
October 13, 2016
Charlotte Kasner
Another favourite from The China National Peking Opera Company (中國國家京劇院), The Legend of the White Snake (白蛇傳), this time celebrating the distaff side, and that basically tells the love-story of the White Snake turned lady (白素貞) and the handsome Xu Xian (許仙). Love doesn’t run smooth, though, and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way.
Unlike The General and the Prime Minister (將相和), this production is full of delicate details and nuance. The depiction of the women is terrific; a huge contrast to the foot-bound noblewomen of the Song dynasty onwards. They drive the plot as warriors but employ full feminine wiles. Hand gestures are intricate and the green snake (小青, Greenie as she is charmingly designated) somehow manages to scurry and glide simultaneously. All can tumble, although the major honours in that direction as ever go the warriors in the battle.
To the tale. Tempted by earthly delights, the two snakes are strolling by a beautiful lake when Miss White espies Xu Xian. When it begins to rain, she takes up his offer of an umbrella, with much coy preamble of course. Having fund out from Greenie, that he is single, Miss White invites him to tea.
He explains that he is an orphan living with his brother-in-law and helping to run their herbal medicine shop but Greenie, in short sharp measure, informs him that he is in fact there to be married and, having prepared everything for the ceremony, he is duly matched then and there. Let us be clear from the outset that there are three in this marriage: the couple, who set up their own herbal medicine shop, and Greenie as the maid.
Photo China National Peking Opera Company
Of course, they cannot be allowed to live happily ever after and the mixture is stirred by the arrival of a monk who tells Xu Xian that his life is in danger because he has been tricked into marriage by an evil snake goddess. Xu Xian finds it difficult to credit the tale, so the monk (referred to in the running translation by a mischievous translator as a “bald plonker”) tells him to wait until the forthcoming May holiday and force Miss White to drink wine when she will then reveal her true identity.
May duly arrives and although reluctant to drink at first (she is pregnant), Miss White eventually complies until she is drunk. When she goes to lie down, Xu Xian follows. So frightened is he by her subsequent brief transformation into her true serpentine form, he drops dead. Del Boy eat your heart out – this man did not even need to lean on a non-existent bar before he dropped down flat.
All is not lost! Although distraught, Miss White and Greenie set off for the sacred mountain to steal the magic mushroom from Crane Boy and Deer Boy with which to revive Xu Xian. Crane Boy and Deer Boy knock off endless strings of barrel turns with enormous grace and feather-light landings. They could make a welcome addition to any international ballet company. All is then well again until the bald plonker, aka the old monk, reappears and entraps Xu Xian in his temple.
Miss White, now nine months pregnant, and Greenie pursue him and engage in an epic battle with the monastery troops, summoning the mighty waters of the Yangtze river in aid, and that includes a splendid display of flag wielding (think acrobats in Nureyev’s Romeo and Juliet) and a juggling display of spears which Greenie deflects by deftly kicking them away left, right and centre. The occasional error makes the feat all the more amazing. Thankfully, they are humans after all. As with the battle in The General and the Prime Minister, there is a real sense of what it must be like to be amidst the confusion and fear of flying weapons and flailing bodies as well as revelling in the wow factor of the techniques on display. The snake couple are defeated though, and return home to lick their wounds.
In the meantime, hearing the battle raging outdo and guessing the reason, Xu Xian persuades a junior monk (very much the Shakespearian fool) to let him go. In the true idiot servant tradition, the young mink releases that his own life is now in the line and wisely sneaks out himself.
Xu Xian finally arrives home to find that of course, the shop has closed and he has nowhere to live; and he has to deal with a betrayed Miss White and a livid Greenie. Love wins out, though. Miss White confesses her true identity but says that her love is true enough to overcome her former form as long as Xu Xian promises never to betray her again. Greenie finally realises that she may have been a bit if a gooseberry but, she is welcomed into the family, presumably soon to be four, and they set off to re-establish their home on the banks of the river.
Great stuff again, and I hope that it will not be too long before we get a chance to see this company again, perhaps with other items form their repertoire.