In "Midnight Kill," written and directed by K.K. Wong, a school campus in a Chinese rural village during the 1970's becomes a theater of twisted, oppressed but indelible human desires. Daily mundane activities become an absurd performance of ordinary people's basic emotions. The play is based around an actual murder story that occurred in a mountain hamlet in Anhui province (China), where the author lived for five years. Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America will present the work's world premiere May 6 to 22 at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., NYC. It will be performed in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles and will be completely accessible for English-speaking audiences.
The play is a drama set among the teachers of a small elementary school in a rural farming village in northern China during the early 1970s, when China's Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution was at its height. Under the country's autocratic rule, extreme forms of collectivism, asceticism, and class warfare ran rampant in every corner of the country. In this crucible of passion, ideology and deprivation, a married woman has been having an affair with a young teacher. The play opens with the scene where the teacher has already killed the woman. The rest of the play traces their relationship as a flash back, eventually revealing the motivations behind the killing.
The style of the play is symbolic and somewhat abstract, drawing the audience's attention to the internal world of the characters. It isn't a mystery per se, but it is designed to create suspense and anticipation. K.K. Wong writes, "I am just trying to present what was the general nature of ordinary people and how it was deformed, distorted and twisted in that particular environment. I hope the audience will simply get to know these people, who lived in the that small village far in Anhui, China in 70's, with their their loves and hatreds, their hopes and their efforts to survive."
The stage design simulates two locations at a different times of the day in the village. Throughout the performance, the cast members will strategically shuffle stage elements to convert and merge the spaces into new scenes.
The actors are Robert Cheung, Chun Cho, Shan Y Chuang, Qihao Huang,
Wanning Jen, Arthur Lai,
Chien-Lun Lee, Jia Hui Xiong and Bincong Zhu,
Set design is by K.K. Wong. Lighting design is by Yi-Chung Chen. Composer and sound designer is Xiren Wang. Costume design is by Kevin Yang. Translator is Hai-Ying Li.
K.K. Wong (author, director, set designer) is a Cantonese born in Shanghai. He moved to Hong Kong and developed an impressive career both there and in China in the fine and performing arts, as a designer, painter and actor. His 60' x 10' calligraphy mural for the dance production of General YueFei for the Asian Festival in Hong Kong caused a sensation and established his fame as an artist. Subsequently, he served as set designer for Hong Kong Dance Companies' production of "Red Snow, Lady Yu and Yellow Earth" that appeared in Beijing in 1988. Mr. Wong's calligraphy has been collected by Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong
Dance Company and other Japanese and overseas companies. His paintings are represented by MMI of contemporary arts in New York, and have been collected in the US, Germany, Malaysia and museums and galleries in China and in Hong Kong. A character actor both on stage and on screen, Mr. Wong had appeared in films and television series in China and Hong Kong. He migrated with his family to this country and made New York his home in 1989. He is Co-Artistic Director of Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America.
Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America (
www.yangtze-rep-theatre.org), founded in 1992 by Joanna Chan, is one of New York's most significant entry points for dramatic works from Chinese-speaking countries and a place of collaboration for artists from various parts of Asia. In 1997, Yangtze Rep brought Gao XingJian, the 2000 Nobel laureate in literature, to New York to direct his play "Between Life and Death" at Theater for the New City and for an exhibit of his paintings at Pace Downtown Theater. In 2005, Yangtze presented the New York debut of Beijing People's
Art Theatre, China's most prestigious theater company, in "Teahouse" by Lao She. Theater for the New City has been home to many of Yangtze Rep's milestone productions, significantly including its 1997 presentation of "Between Life and Death" by Gao XingJian and its 2001 production of the Chinese fable, "Butterfly Dreams," which was directed by Wang XiaoYing, Deputy Director of China's National Theatre.
In addition to works of theater, Yangtze has presented multiple dance productions, musical concerts and a succession of visual art exhibits through the years. In recent seasons, the company had begun a Staged Play Reading Series to nurture emerging Asian playwrights. This is the 33rd mainstage presentation of the company, which was founded in 1992 by Joanna Chan, who handed over leadership of the company on July 1, 2014 to the three-man team of K. K. Wong and Wayne Chang as Co-Artistic Directors and Jason HaoWen Wang as Executive Director, with Chan as Emeritus Director. Last Spring, in its first production under the new leadership, it presented the American premiere of "Behind the Mask -- a Play" by Chinese authors Feng BaiMing and Huang WeiRuo, directed by Chongren Fan. The show, a dark comedy set in a Chinese theater troupe, was critically acclaimed for its savvy direction and performances.
This production is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor
Andrew Cuomo and the New York Legislature. It is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council.
