Inspired by the real-life story of a Beijing opera singer and a French diplomat who were both convicted of espionage, local musical drama “Mr. Shi and His Lover” delves into the complex issue of gender and identity through a tale of love and betrayal.
The 80-minute recital, laced with Chinese opera, Giacomo Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and Western vintage pop with the story playing references to Chinese folklore “The Butterfly Lovers”, was jointly created by the Macau Experimental Theatre and Toronto’s Music Picnic and tickets to the performance were sold out in the first three days, leading to two more shows having been added to the musical’s run at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM).
“It’s curiosity,” Jordan Cheng Kwan Chi who plays Mr. Shi, said in a meet-the-press session at CCM yesterday, ahead of the first of their four performances over the weekend starting tonight.
The local adaptation of the true story that made headlines in the 1960s is the work of local playwright Wong Teng Chi and Canadian composer Njo Kong Kie, presented by local director Tam Chi Chun, with performers Cheng and Derek Kwan.
From a black box theatre in 2013, the troupe has since staged 70 performances locally and abroad, winning Best New Musical, Best Actor and Supporting Actor in a musical at the Toronto Theatre Critic Awards last year.
Plot twist
The “true” story, according to media reports, is that Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu and Frenchman Bernard Boursicot, who worked as an accountant in the French embassy in Beijing, met in 1964 and developed a sexual relationship. According to the reports, Boursicot only discovered that Shi was actually a man after they were arrested on charges of espionage in France in 1983. Both were sentenced to six years in prison in 1986.
The affair became a creative source for American playwright David Henry Hwang’s play “M. Butterfly” (1988) that was produced on Broadway, and a film adaptation in 1993 directed by David Cronenberg.
For the creators of “Mr. Shi and His Lover”, it was the question of whether it was possible to completely hide one’s real gender during a 20-year relationship, which inspired their interpretation.
The local approach to the story, Tam said, offers a different perspective and aesthetics from Hwang’s version.
“We’ve always wanted to do a musical, we were interested in seeing how music can convey a person’s thoughts and emotions,” Tam pointed out, and the direction of their version is more on “how far would one go for love”.
Cheated
While “M. Butterfly” is based on the view that the French diplomat felt he was being betrayed and cheated, “Mr. Shi and His Lover” centres on Shi’s side of the love story, touching on the themes of gender and identity.
“What if the French diplomat had cheated Shi? That he pretended he didn’t know Shi was a man all that time? We’re not talking about same-sex relationships here, we’re looking at interpersonal relationships, how a person displays him or herself in a relationship to make it work, how far can one go to maintain a relationship,” Tam said.
Having played Mr. Shi for the roughly 70 performances, Cheng said that at the end of the day, Mr. Shi is just looking for love, like everyone else.
“This character goes to the extreme of chasing love or attention or the need to be needed,” Cheng said, “Everybody wants to be needed at some point, otherwise we’d be lost, we wouldn’t know who we are, and because nobody needs us we’d feel we don’t exist, that’s what Mr. Shi ultimately psychologically thinks.”
For Kwan, who’s been playing Boursicot for about 50 shows, said that he still couldn’t answer how the whole love affair works.
“Betrayal is so common in relationships and we ask what is a lie, what is betrayal, what is it based on, what is the motive behind that, and does that change things?” Kwan said, adding: “It’s complicated, it’s about love and human relationships and gender – we don’t even know how Mr. Shi would identify himself – there is still a lot of pondering.”
Asian playing Frenchman
The decision to have an Asian actor playing Boursicot was deliberate, Tam said, with the purpose of highlighting the idea of identity and nationality.
“Does being white make you French? Can a yellow-skinned person be French?” Tam asked, explaining that Kwan, being born in Canada, was a right choice because he’s sensitive to cultures, identities and language, factors that influence how a person reacts and interacts.
Similarly, the piece explores the social masks a diplomat feels obliged to wear, and what is expected of them, as opposed to what they really wanted, and whether the idea of what they wanted was given to them?
“It asks a lot of questions about how we fit into society, how we fit into the world, or in front of people as a diplomat,” Kwan said, We have a lot of questions about why we do things a certain way. Like a diplomat, there are protocols, there are rules, but what if we question those things and ultimately get rid of them and make up our own minds and our own decisions about everything.”
‘I am free’
While Shi died in 2009, Boursicot is still alive.
“The story is that he still goes and watches performances of M Butterfly,” Kwan said, “We have tried to [invite him to watch Mr. Shi and His Lover] but haven’t succeeded so far, but he’s an interesting person but at the same time very private and we know very little about him.”
According to Wikipedia, Shi was quoted in an interview in 1988 as having said, “I used to fascinate both men and women. What I was and what they were didn’t matter.”About the affair, Boursicot is quoted as saying, “When I believed it, it was a beautiful story.”
However, when Boursicot was notified at a French nursing home of Shi’s death, Boursicot said, “He did so many things against me that he had no pity for, I think it is stupid to play another game now and say I am sad. The plate is clean now. I am free.”
The show, performed in Putonghua, is on at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow and 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Sunday.
Promotional photos of “Mr. Shi and His Lover” taken by Erik Kuong are provided by CCM.
“Mr. Shi and His Lover” director Tam Chi Chun (centre) and actors Jordan Cheng Kwan Chi (left) and Derek Kwan react during a meet-the-press session at CCM yesterday. Photo: Monica Leong
