SYDNEY, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- No spoken dialogue. No translation needed. Just puppetry, music and movement. A drama about the Chinese zodiac ran for two performances to more than 2,000 audience members in Sydney on Saturday.
"It was a cute show. I like the characters, and the costumes were amazing. I thought it would be a bit tricky to understand, but it was quite clear with the different characters about what they were about," Tony Rudolph, an audience member, said after the show. Children in the crowd sat transfixed as the zodiac animals moved across the stage.
Born from a Chinese-Australian collaboration, "The Dragon Child and the Twelve Animals of the Zodiac" was directed by Australian director, producer and puppeteer Peter Wilson, who directed segments of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony and the Doha 2006 Asian Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Performed by the China National Theatre for Children, which celebrates the 70th anniversary of its establishment this year, "The Dragon Child" debuted in Beijing on Chinese New Year's Day in 2008, which marked the start of the Year of the Rat. It has since won wide appreciation during its tours to many countries, including Vietnam, Australia, Mexico, the United States, and Japan.
Recalling the birth of the stage production nearly two decades ago, Wilson said he will never forget the freezing winter of 2007 in Beijing, something "Australians are not particularly famous for their ability to cope with," yet it did nothing to cool the creative fire of the team.
"We were already working across two languages. So why not find a theatrical language that could speak beyond both of them? Movement, image, puppetry, design, and music, each will help tell the story," said Wilson. "That possibility excited me enormously. If we could find it, perhaps we could create a world that didn't need translation, a story that a child in Beijing, or Sydney, or New York, or anywhere else in the world could simply enter."
"The work never set out to be an Australian show. The work never set out to be a Chinese show." The director explained that the Chinese zodiac "gave us something deeply rooted in Chinese culture" but at the same time "wonderfully accessible" through 12 animal characters.
By telling the story of a child born to a dragon and raised under the care of the 12 zodiac animals, the drama explores themes of growth and environmental protection.
"I have always believed there is something incredibly powerful about bringing artists from different cultures together, and simply allowing them to share. Share ideas, traditions, skills, stories, and different ways of seeing the world, not to change one another, nor to decide which way is better. But to listen, to remain curious, and then to make something together that perhaps none of us could have imagined alone. 'The Dragon Child' became one of those rare opportunities," Wilson reflected.
"Through that sharing, we created something unique, something that would eventually travel far beyond us, finding audiences across cultures, languages, and generations," he said. "The little dragon we first imagined nearly 20 years ago in a rehearsal room in Beijing is still traveling. And somehow, wonderfully, it has found its way here."
"To see it come alive again on stage is really wonderful," said Richard Jeziorny, creative stage designer of the drama. "All that time has passed. It's still so relevant, and an audience can still connect and relate to it. It's just very emotional." ■