Archa Theatre

Questioning Heaven in Despair (Marné Tázání Nebes)

A sino-baroque performance

The Archa Theatre presents new premiere performance ancillary to "The Glory of the Baroque in Bohemia" exhibition

Directed by: J. A. Pitínský
Lead Role: Feng-Jün Song
Premiere: September 28 2001 at 8.00 pm
Other performances: September 29, 30 and October 1, 2 2001 at 8.00 pm

Questioning Heaven in Despair - a theatrical and musical piece in which contemporary culture meets with the mysterious and fascinating worlds of Chinese Opera and Baroque Theatre.

As a part of "The Glory of the Baroque in Bohemia" exhibition the Archa Theatre has created a performance which combines Baroque culture with the world of Chinese theatre. Questioning Heaven in Despair weaves together elements of the Peking Opera - such as Chinese singing, acrobatics, martial arts - with baroque music and the principles of baroque theatre. The result is not a historical reproduction of either genre but a piece of truly contemporary theatre which reveals what is fascinating about the Peking Opera and baroque theatre. An important part of the performance is song and original music played live onstage.
          The performance's story is loosely based on the book Letters from China by Karel Slavíček, a Czech Jesuit who left for China on a Christian mission at the beginning of the18th century. This is a tale of the Czech Jesuit mission to the court of the Chinese Emperor; a story of all those far from home and surrounded by a foreign culture, experiencing delight and amazement but also alienation and fear, trying to find the common ground between cultures. The dissolution of different religious pre-conceptions, cultures and worlds in the past and present is the main theme of the performance.
          The performance's creators have moved through time and across cultures: composer Petr Hromádka has linked unique Chinese arias and baroque compositions with contemporary electronic music. Tomáš Rusín's set design respects the principles of baroque theatre: three playing spaces, a system of flats, backdrops and viewpoints. Original costumes by Zuzana Štefunková draw from the symbols of both cultures: from China's ornaments and prints as well as from Jesuit cassocks. The demanding and unusual challenge of connecting baroque and Chinese theatre has been taken up by director J. A. Pitínský.
          The main role is played by Peking Opera singer Feng-Jün Song who is also special advisor of the whole project. Feng-Jün Song grew up in Northern China. She started to study Peking opera when she was eight years old, and was a personal student of Šang Chuej-min, successor of the Šang school, one of the four biggest Peking opera schools.
          She has lived in the Czech Republic since 1985. She performs solo concerts and cooperates with many different musicians (Alan Vitouš, Sluneční orchestr, Martin Smolka), she collects and compiles oriental and eastern ethnic music.

Czech, Chinese and Latin are spoken in the performance.

Our Baroque Chinese Salon is both a place and story where Peking porcelain can be placed alongside delft faience, Flanders tapestries with Chinese silk, Venetian mirrors and lacquered furniture with golden legs, the love story in a Chinese novel with letters from a missionary. It is a Chinese salon in the European Rococo style.

Story and concept: Aleš Roleček, Ondřej Hrab, Jana Svobodová
In the principal male role: Martin Matoušek
With: Tereza Roglová, Marika Krist, Petr Matuszek, Eva Dosedělová, Monika Nováková, Olga Procházková, Števo Capko, Jing Lu, Zhaoxiang Meng, Jan Pellar

Media partners:

With the support of the City of Prague.