THEATRE REVIEW: THE BLUE DRAGON

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
12 JAN 2012
R: 4.5/5

Scant weeks before the Chinese community welcomes a new year — this one, the Year of the Dragon once again — local theatres seem to have already fallen prey to the mythical creature, beloved in Sino-lore. In movie theatres, there's more than a bit of appreciation for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, while on the live theatre front the folks at Tarragon are putting the finishing touches on a new production of Roland Schimmelpfennig's The Golden Dragon, slated to open next week.

And then there's THE BLUE DRAGON, which has taken over the stage of the Royal Alexandra Theatre for a limited run, through Feb. 19, as part of the Mirvish subscription season.

Written in a collaboration between Marie Michaud, who is also a featured player, and the esteemed Robert Lepage, who directs, it is a story of deceptive simplicity, set in modern-day China — Shanghai and environs, to be specific. That's where 50-ish Pierre (played by Henri Chasse) has finally come to roost, fleeing artistic expectations and an unfocused marriage in Quebec, and carving out both a home and a career as a gallery owner from China's new openness.

But his life and his burgeoning romance with the lovely young artist, Xiao Ling (Tai Wei Foo), whom he has taken both under his wing and into his bed, is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of Claire (playwright Michaud), the wife he left behind. Now a successful career woman (and a bit of a lush), she has journeyed to China to fill a void she has found in her life by adopting a child. Slowly, the three lives intertwine, until they reach a surprise ending that really represents a world of possible new beginnings for each of them.
In short, it's a story that succeeds in holding one's interest, even while it stops short of being utterly compelling.

Or it would, that is, in lesser hands. But once it has been shaped by the finely honed theatrical vision of Lepage and his team, it becomes absolutely riveting, dazzling its audience with a rich blend of understated acting and a staging that is, as usual, utterly compelling in its mix of simple artistry and groundbreaking technology.

To cocoon this delicate story, designers Michel Gauthier (sets), Jeanne Lapierre (props), Jean-Sebastien Coté (sound), Louis-Xavier Gagnon-Lebrun (lighting), François St-Aubin (costumes) and David Leclerc (projections) conspire to transform, as if by magic, a simple two-level platform into everything from the interior of an airplane, to the skyline of Shanghai — with stops at galleries, restaurants, train stations, airports and sweatshops along the way.

They incorporate everything from Chinese calligraphy to dances of the cultural revolution into a story that unfolds seamlessly in three languages. And they do it with such an unstated ease that it rarely, if ever, impedes the flow of the storytelling. The set shifts and blends so perfectly, and so completely, with the action that the experience is transformed into a form of heightened cinema that is only slightly short of breathtaking, and never less than exhilarating.

But while the theatrical world that springs from Lepage's imagination proves, once again, to be a world of wonder, it also conspires to underline the fact that Lepage too often seems to limit his work to a technical canvas, choosing to leave the universe of big, theatrical emotions unexplored. This entry is, in fact, no exception. While THE BLUE DRAGON may breathe creative fire, it is a work that ultimately leaves its audience delighted and amazed but emotionally unruffled, still waiting for the story to catch fire emotionally.