Risky 'Empress' deserves attention

By Chris Jones
SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE

     Ambition is a vital quality for any storefront Chicago theater.  And when the tiny TinFish Theatre decided to take on Ruth Wolff's rarely seen play about Tzu-Hsi, the last empress of the Manchu Ch'ing Dynasty of China, it was stretching itself in the way that deserves attention.
     Plays rooted in Asia (or even the Asian-American experience) are woefully underexposed in Chicago.  We lack both a major professional company dedicated to those works and sufficient such productions from existing mainstream groups.
     As a result, we often do not get to see interesting new plays penned for troupes such as New York's Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, San Francisco's Asian American Theater Company and the East West Players in Honolulu.  Even Minneapolis has Theater Mu, which has produced top-quality Asian-American work in the Midwest for almost a decade.
     Wolff's "Empress of China," written for the pan Asian Rep in the early 1980s, follows the actions of a woman who rose from the position of concubine to become the most powerful force in China at the close of the 19th Century.  It was Tzu-Hsi, of course, who installed Pu-Yi (the "Last Emperor" of Bertolucci's acclaimed movie) on the doomed Chinese throne.
     Then as now, China was in the throes of enormous societal change.  And Wolff's epic and fascinating historical play deals with the travails of the dowager empress as she fights the selfish influences of colonial powers, learns how to use the so-called Boxer Rebellion to own advantage, and tries to keep in place China's old ways of doing things.  Although the piece was perhaps written too early to make direct thematic links, there are obvious parallels to the morphing China of today.
     Since the piece requires a complex cast that includes concubines and scheming eunuchs, it's tough to do.  Director Rebecca J. Ennals has found a diverse group of actors but her cast is almost all non-Asian.  It would be preferable otherwise perhaps, but the convention creates some interesting perceptual complexities that the production is smart enough to openly explore.
     And with the exception of a few overblown moments of faux martial art and occasionally cheesy acting, you have the sense here that everyone is trying their considerable best to feel a way inside this complex culture.
     There's a touch of Hollywood to Jody Wilson's depiction of Tzu-Hsi, but it's certainly a powerful and compelling performance.  Joslyn Housley is also quietly impressive as The Pearl Concubine, and Reid Ostrowski offers an intelligent Jung Lu.  The idea of re-creating Asian staging conventions on Lincoln Avenue was provocative, although this production is a little too busy and fussy to follow through entirely on that idea.
     Still, Ennals should be proud of her work here.  And anyone intrigued in this period of Chinese history will find a great deal of interest in her bold production.
     Instead of trotting out the usual stuff, TinFish has taken an admirable risk with "The Empress of China."

Playwright: Ruth Wolff
At: TinFish Productions at TinFish Theatre, 4247 N. Lincoln Ave.
Phone: (773) 549-1888
Tickets: $17.50; Runs through: Nov. 18

by Mary Shen Barnidge

     A framing device traditionally employed in the genre of historical fiction is that of the humble narrator whose position renders him/her intimate with the Decision-Makers, but whose account of the significant events engendered by such reflects their inherently human dynamic.  Our guide to China at the turn of the 19th century is, conveniently, an actor pressed into service by the empress - regent to teach her nephew how to behave like the ruler he will someday be - and to spy on those who might usurp her influence over her henpecked offspring.
     As the Nationalists, and after them, the Communists were to learn, the governing of an empire encompassing most of the world's largest continent requires vigilance, especially when that empire was already eroding under escalating European intervention.  A country accustomed to thinking itself the cradle of civilization for over 4,000 years does not readily adapt to change.  But Empress Of China is less interested in analysis of China's political situation at the ascent of its last imperial ruler (rendered nowadays problematic by each subsequent regime's propensity for vilifying its predecessors) than in painting a portrait of the woman whom all accounts agree was a Mommie Dearest obsessed with the accumulation and retention of personal power.  To this goal, she metes out sadistic punishments to those who betray her - or who might betray her - while sanctimoniously attributing her ruthless actions to love of her country and the lack of manly-men therein.
     The play's setting is sufficiently distant to allow for author's license (which, in this case, includes only two glaring anachronisms: the identification of China's capital as "Beijing" rather than the period-accurate "Peiping," and the Empress' comparison of Jesus to Buddha when Confucius would be a more likely analogy).  And, in the title role for this TinFish production, the irrepressible Jody Wilson (whom players may recall from last winter's Fit To Be Tied) dragon-ladies it up to emerge as The Woman We Love To Hate.  Mark Trahan, Vincent Lonergan, Reid Ostrowski and Gordon Chow (the Lone Chinese actor in the multiracial cast) likewise contribute valiant support.
     But what most redeems a text bordering on Masterpiece Theatre-camp is director Rebecca J. Ennals' infectious enthusiasm for her subject.  Ruth Wolff's ponderous revisionism might leave us hungry again an hour later, but the TinFish company's wholesale commitment to their material makes for an entertaining 2-1/2 hours.