Press File - Kunstenfestivaldesarts

A simple story. A storyteller-drummer at the court of tyrannical emperor Ts’ao Ts’ao summons
the public and openly insults their supreme leader. Furious, Ts’ao Ts’ao wants to kill the
insolent man but is too cowardly to take charge of it himself. He sends the troubadour to one of
his very quick-tempered subordinates and the outcome is as expected: when the drummer
criticises the irascible courtier he is sent to be executed. Ceremony, Wang Jianwei’s new
theatrical creation, has been inspired by Drum Rolls Criticising Ts’ao. Not without reason.
What is it that initiates a process of creation in you?
I like exploring the flaws in knowledge we have acquired: what they evade, the enigmas of
history. I like questioning what we lose sight of in their many interpretations. I like exploring the
‘intermediate zones’. How different interpretations, perceptions and forms of knowledge can
relate to one other, how they intersect and overlap, and how new realms of potential emerge
which have so far been ignored.
To do this you get your inspiration from texts that already exist. How do you choose
them?
I work with plays and fragments of literature. Both Ping Feng (performed at the
KunstenFESTIVALdesArts 2000, ed.) and Ceremony come from known gems of Chinese art
and literature. Ping Feng was inspired by a scroll of silk painted more than 1,000 years ago by a
painter at the imperial court, Gu Hongzhong. He had been appointed by the emperor to spy on
a high-ranking civil servant he was suspicious of and to report on him. Gu Hongzhong did this
by painting what he had observed. With time the painting Han Xizai gives a Banquet has
become one of the undisputed masterpieces in the history of Chinese painting, and today has
pride of place in the Museum of the Forbidden City. Ceremony was also inspired by the famous
public accusation Drum Rolls Criticising Ts’ao. I’m not interested in reproducing a story from
history or bringing a new aesthetic experience to the stage. I want to ‘read’ history and
understand the manner and details of how the different interpretations of it influence our
experiences of life and our attitude towards it, our individual and collective consciousness.
Who was Ts’ao?
Ts’ao Ts’ao, (155-220 A.D.) is a particularly significant figure in the history of China. Under the
Han dynasty, one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history, several nobles were fighting
for power and had sown division in the country. Ts’ao Ts’ao succeeded in dominating and
unifying the provinces in the north. To do this he abused his position as prime minister whilst
feigning respect for the emperor who was nothing more than a puppet. When Ts’ao Ts’ao died,
his son followed in his footsteps and took over the imperial throne. Already at that time Chinese
opinion was criticising his character and the way he acted, taking a swipe at him as an example
of the ancient proverb: “He who usurps a title will never keep his word.”
Drum Rolls Criticising Ts’ao seizes on Ts’ao Ts’ao as a classic example of a treacherous
courtier. The story is based on three different literary texts about the same subject, spread out
over 1,000 years: The History of Han, Romance of Three Kingdoms and a traditional text
entitled Kuang Gu Shi Yu Yang San Nong. The writers and styles are very varied – the first text
is from the annals of a court chronicler, the second text is a story passed down orally from
generation to generation and the third is a traditional play. So there are three interpretations.
Where does the title Ceremony come from?
The title of Ceremony has a double meaning. On the one hand all three literary sources I’ve
used mention a place where people gathered together: the ceremony of the drum. This unusual
place suggests in advance that we’ll be dealing with a character out of the ordinary. On the
other hand the story has a ceremonial nature. It is based on historic texts covering over one
thousand years of history. During this period the sustained repetition of this story has resulted in
a consolidation of an uncontestable historical image. Serving as a norm, this story became
embedded in the collective memory. These two types of ceremony merge together and so
describe an irrefutable ‘historical event’.
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