Theatre

Memorandum is the latest work of Danny Yung, Co-Artistic Director of Zuni Icosahedron, in 2014. It is a brand new theatre production and conglomeration of literature, history, intangible cultural heritage and contemporary theatre. There will be four experimental short pieces on “memory”, based on the classic works of four deceased Chinese artists, and the works are:

Story of the Stone, also known as Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, the most controversial of the four great Chinese novels;

The treasure of Kunqu aria, Flee by Night from The Legend of the Precious Sword by Li Kaixian, one of the Eight Talents in the Reign of Jiajing;

Tears of Barren Hill by Cheng Yanqiu, one of the four great Dan (female roles) actors in Peking opera;

The musical, Lao Jiu by Kuo Pao Kun, the best of the theatre in Singapore

Yung gathers together artists from traditional Sichuan opera, Kunqu opera and contemporary theatre in order to search for and examine the issue of memory. It is his attempt to organize personal history and reconstruct collective memory.

Once again, Yung is using the minimal form of the stage of “one table two chairs”. This concept of “one table two chairs” has its origin from the abstract and impressionistic style of staging in traditional Chinese opera. Since 1997, Yung has been using this minimal and versatile form of staging, combines it with the minimalist style of contemporary theatre, to create experimental works with artists from various places of the world. Until now, more than 100 artists have been commissioned to participate in this project of trans-regional, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.