Cao Kefei
In October 2010, I was commissioned by the Culturescapes 2010 festival in Switzerland to write and direct a theatre work with a documentary character called Chang'E (German title "Der rundere Mond"). This is a further co-creation with women from different fields after I directed Together ("Togehter") in 2007.
As a person living between two political systems and cultures, I have a deep understanding of the tensions and fullness, the lacks and the gains between both. In the context of globalization, foreign marriages have become more and more common. What are the personal experiences of the individuals who most directly experience the collision of two cultures in their everyday private lives, how do they face cultural differences and new challenges, and how do they reflect on the home they have left in their new home? Chang'E takes mainland Chinese women living in Switzerland and married to Swiss men as its starting point and considers these questions across cultural boundaries through their personal experiences. Through numerous interviews and dialogues, I chose five women from different generations and social backgrounds: a Peking Opera actress, a Chinese teacher, a housewife who has just graduated from university, a guqin player and an antique dealer. After a month and a half of rehearsals, we ended up with five performers who presented their individual journeys on stage with their own unique expressions.
The only Swiss actor in the production played the role of the different husbands. During the rehearsals he searched for certain archetypes of the different roles by talking to several Swiss husbands who were married to Chinese women, so that Chang'E could be seen from the perspective of a man from another culture at the same time.
In Chang'E, the creative team and I explored the relationship between reality and fiction in documentary theatre, that is, how to integrate reality and fiction, how to put "experts in everyday life" and professional actors on the same stage without distinguishing between so-called amateurs and professionals, how to see the relationship between the individual and the collective, how to shift between everyday narratives and literary language, and how to expand the traditional stage space. During the rehearsals we used a number of key words to stimulate the body, memory and narrative of the performers, twelve of which form a video installation on the stage consisting of twelve TV screens and headphones. After the play, the audience can go on stage and learn more about the inner worlds of the five women, including the director, through the images, or they can share the Chinese hotpot ---- with the creators on stage in a unique post-performance exchange.
Concept,Director: Cao Kefei
Stage,Video: Wang Guo Feng
Costume: Anna von Zerboni
Theatre Production,Videoinstallation: Mats Staub/Erinnerungsbüro
Producer: Peter-Jakob Kelting/North by North West Kulturprojekte
Performers: Tingshan Cavelty, Man Cao, Qin Hauser-Xu, Wenmin Jowanka-Zhang, Qin Streller-Shen, Sebastian Krähenbühl, Chiao Ai Choir
Co-production: Schlachthaus Theater Bern, Kleintheater Luzern, Beijing Come & Go Centre for Arts Cooperation, Theater Roxy Basel