Encountering Shakespeare in avant‐garde Kun opera

Abstract

In commemoration of the quater‐centenary of William Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu in 2016, A Shakespearean Handan Dream, a Sino‐British theatrical co‐production, was staged in London, with Ke Jun and Leon Rubin as co‐directors. The play contains four acts of Tang’s Handan Meng (The Handan Dream), into which 12 Shakespearean episodes are inserted. Instead of merely representing cultural differences, the play is seen as an active performance event to shape the cross‐cultural aesthetic experiences of the audiences and their cosmopolitan visions. As an avant‐garde experiment, the play features a specific kind of “new interculturalism” in world theater, which challenges the existing modes of interpretation of intercultural theater. With reference to new developments in intercultural performance theory, this essay is concerned with the singularity of the intercultural performance, its social and political significance, and its contemporary relevance.