The Pilgrimage of the Heart
December, 2006 "There is nothing but the sky, Shanghai, and Lin … Lin is sitting between the sky and Shanghai.""Always father and daughter… tied together by a blood-red string... unravel it, wrap it round itself, pull it, play with it, you can never sever it… burn it and you burn yourself."
An intriguing performance of a work-in-progress at the Oval House Theatre; The Pilgrimage of the Heart, a dramatic adaptation of a short story by the great Shanghaiese writer, Ailing Zhang. “The Pilgrimage of the Heart” charts the doomed relationship of a father and daughter in the city of Shanghai.
Written and adapted by Simon C.K. Wu and directed by Pui Shan Ng, this production was realised and developed as a research and development project funded by Arts Council England, co-produced by the Yellow Earth Theatre Company and supported by Oval House Theatre.
Synopsis
Set in Shanghai, an outwardly normal happy family is trapped in a dark web of hidden lust and desire which threatens to destroy each and every one of them.
Originally set in the glamorous cosmopolitan Shanghai of the thirties, this adaptation resets the action in the resurrected Shanghai of today, in which traditional values are again colliding with western values as they were in the 30’s. The compassionate exploration of the taboo and human dilemma at the heart of the play is explored through a theatrically eclectic mix of symbolism, Greek tragic devices and multi-media. The play also aims to introduce the beauty of Chinese literature through adapting Ailing Zhang’s exquisite prose.
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