Review by William Chan
The 34th Macao Arts Festival featured a play titled “The Fury of My Thoughts” at the Macau Cultural Centre’s Grand Auditorium on Friday and Saturday. The play delves into the world and writings of Nelly Arcan (1973-2009), a female novelist from Canada who based her work on her experiences in the sex industry.
The play was structured with separate rooms on stage, each occupied by an actress performing a monologue in French, presumably taken directly from Nelly Arcan’s text or inspired by it. The scenes within each room were non-linear.
The rooms were well-designed and immersive, but there was minimal interaction between the actresses, creating an experience that felt more like a script reading. This lack of engagement between the performers was possibly the play’s biggest drawback for some of the audience.
The entire play was performed in French, a language understood by perhaps only a very small minority of the audience, or even none. The technical execution was problematic; the surtitles were awkwardly positioned at the top of the stage, requiring constant upward and downward glances, which proved distracting. Sitting in the middle and towards the back, I could only imagine that the experience was even worse for those seated on the sides or at the front.
The performers spoke rapidly at times, and the placement and timing of the surtitles were often incorrect. Additionally, some scenes contained an excessive amount of text, making it impossible to read everything before it switched to another scene. This made the overall experience frustrating and exhausting.
Thematically, the play explores women’s issues. As a male, I found it difficult to connect with the topics, which seemed distant from the local audience.
Despite the existence of a sex industry in Macau, the portrayal of a high-class escort by the actress felt disconnected from the mostly local audience. The local population is far removed from such experiences.
There is one scene where a mother expresses a desire for a male child but ends up with a daughter, leading the actress to reflect on the perspective of being unwanted. In Chinese society, this issue carries much more weight and darkness, especially in the mainland where the one-child policy, discontinued in 2015, and traditional values hold greater influence. The emotional depth of the play seems relatively mild or unrelatable in comparison.
A few scenes touch on religion and family, which are challenging for the local audience to grasp due to differing value systems. It seems that no effort was made to localise the play and make it more accessible to Macau viewers.
I am certain that this play would be well-received in many other places, but Macau may not be one of them. It is perplexing as to why the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) chose to invite this play to Macau, especially considering its technical flaws and its unsuccessful attempts to resonate with the local audience.
Despite generous discounts offered by the bureau to boost ticket sales, the auditorium remained more than half empty. To make matters worse, several attendees even exited the auditorium midway through the play, and only a handful remained for the post-play talk. The government’s self-proclaimed status as the city of performing arts necessitates more thoughtful budget planning and thorough research in the field of arts.
The play’s director and adaptor Marie Brassard had discussed the work in an online interview with the Post which was published on June 3.
This photo shows the final minute of “The Fury of My Thoughts” play on Saturday at the Grand Auditorium of the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM), in front of many empty seats. – Photo: William Chan
