Wild Swans

I'd heard very good things about the Young Vic's production of Wild Swans, but I would call it good, not great. The play focuses on a Chinese woman, growing up before the Communist revolution of Mao, supporting the revolution, but then watching the new regime turn against her and her family. It's a bitter portrayal of the way that selfish people use other people's ideals for their own advantage. The cast was wonderful, although the variety of accents threw me off. I think the director gave up on making everyone have the same accent. Some of the women in smaller parts, as well as the children, had decidedly English accents. Some of the other characters had Chinese accents, and the main characters and several others had what was, to my ears, mostly an American accent. I made a note of it, but it didn't take away from the play.

The best part of the play were the set changes. Now, that's not something you hear very often. The play starts with a narrow proscenium, a city street. The floor is packed earth and the background is a woven bamboo screen. Next, the street is taken away, and the packed earth becomes a field, and you can see the dirt is actually several inches deep, at least. Then, the bamboo background is rolled away and the dirt is pushed and swept offstage, revealing a white background and wooden floor, a hospital. This takes all of several minutes.

Next, the stage is swarmed by actors, who, with buckets and sponges, get the entire background wet. After a few seconds, the white background turns into a series of propaganda images. I don't know what they used to make something look white when it was dry and then reveal a picture underneath when wet, but it was a wonderful surprise. The addition of a few haybales turned it into a field, and their replacement with bookcases and a desk turned it into an office. But we're not done yet! Next, the stage flooded. FLOODED. The background images essentially disappeared under a projection of a rice paddy. Then the stage drained, from no apparent source, for the next scene and a different projected image. And then, for the grand finale! The back wall broke into four sections, each turning slightly, to show they have not one, but three faces. Two of the sections moved forward, and two back. Mirrors on the new back wall and sides made the stage seem like a crazy house or maze. Actors swarmed onstage and placed sidewalk tiles to cover the wood floor. Projections on the sides of the triangles of city life, combined with sound effects, made for a very convincing modern replica.

Near the end of the play, I figured out why it was so necessary to have this many changes... the play is doing its best to show the changes happening in China. Watching things change over the 90 minute play was mesmorizing enough I didn't even check my watch, but I was confused when the play ended. I hadn't realized that the events were the climax of the play. Granted, it made sense, as life itself doesn't provide conclusions like a play, and the play gives us the feeling of pending change yet again. I enjoyed it, but I wished it had been longer.