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Wednesday, 30 August 2006
disorientationsFollowing his success in directing three fringe productions earlier this year, William Wong is assistant director on Border Crossings' latest production Dis-Orientations. The story follows a talent scout's journey to China in search of his missing daughter.  It not only looks at the collision between East and West, but also how traditions meet globalisation in contemporary China.  Everyone is searching for something, will they find it?
 
This is the first time that Shanghai Yue Opera is featured in a truly intercultural and multimedia production in the UK.  Find out more on Riverside Studios: Dis-Orientations. Call box office on 020 8237 1111 and quote "Early Bird Offer" by Thursday 31 August.  Offer not available online.
 
For production details, please see http://www.bordercrossings.org.uk/disorientations

Dis-Orientations also coincide with Enchanting Taiwan (4-16 Sep), a photography show, China Connections (18-30 Sep) - contemporary art and video from three London-based artists of Chinese descent and the Taiwan Film Festival (14-17 Sep), all at Riverside Studios.
 
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Emily Wang - Dis-Orientations Posted 16:27 on 18 September 2006
I saw this show on Saturday - totally amazing! Most plays about China in London are full of cliches or try to be "exotic": but this is absolutely the real thing. Zhang Ruihong, from the Yue Opera in Shanghai, is just incredible - she sings and moves amazingly. And the play as a whole really grips you with the story. It's set mainly in modern Shanghai, with lots of clubs and money - but you also get a sense of how that new world sits with all the rest of Chinese culture and history.

I loved it - and I think other Chinese people will love it too.
Loan Tran - Dis-Orientations Posted 23:08 on 18 September 2006
It felt such a privilege to see Zhang Ruihong in such an intimate setting at the Riverside. I agree completely with the above comment. Her movements and singing were absolutely exquisite and bypassed any need to understand the language. I found the questions about identity, one's place in a rapidly changing world and love very poignant and moving. The show is both entertaining and haunting, funny and tragic. Above all, don't miss this opportunity to see and hear what must be some of the most beautiful movement and singing in London at the moment.
Josip Raine - Production Dis-Orientations Posted 14:34 on 19 September 2006
Dear Editor,

I am not a theatre critic, but I am adept at spreading the good word. Allow me to bring to the notice of yourself and to your readers, a singular and groundbreaking theatre production that is currently playing at the Riverside Studios in London. We live in a multicultural society and yet it is this very diversity of culture and community that divides us. Sometimes, and very rarely, there comes along an intercultural theatre production that sets the record straight: Cultural diversity and multiculturalism are not about Difference – they are about Similitude. We live together in a web of local communities, and through this looking-glass of human diversity, we learn to live together in a global community. If there is one lesson to be learnt from attending a production of Dis-Orientations, it is that identity and gender have to be performed in a production that uses diverse multicultural acting skills - not as artistic competency, but simply as a means of understanding the very idea of a melting-pot society. ‘Melting-pot’ is not a directive from the Home Office, nor the latest good idea from a political party conference, - it is a metaphor when, in the best of intercultural theatre productions, art becomes nothing more than a language, a gesture, a handshake. Colour is the coherency of community, and never has the colour of communal living been less than skin deep. Go and see the latest never-ending Picasso or Miro exhibition. Go and see the latest never-ending version of The Tempest. However, if you really want to re-invent yourself as a useful member of our multicultural society, if you really want to understand colour as the depth and profusion of basic human needs, then I suggest that you go and treat yourself to a performance of Dis-Orientations. The Border Crossings production is a collaboration with the all-female Yue Opera of Shanghai, and includes a performance by one of China's greatest actors, Zhang Ruihong. Be British if you will - Lord Kitchener still calls - but then be the best of British. Go on, do your multicultural British heart a favour and a feast. Dis-Orientations wants you.
Yein Chin - Dis-Orientations Posted 19:48 on 19 September 2006
Of all the plays I've seen so far this year, this was by far the best. The story is thought provoking. In the light of sexual awakening, individuals rediscovered love and lost love in a fusion of East met West, through Ballet and Chinese Yue Opera. Some visual experiences were so hauntingly beautiful that they left me feeling melancholic and a sense of nostalgia. The performance was superb! I was very moved.
duzhumin Posted 5:43 on 21 September 2006
I am a master of Chinese Classic literature in Shanghai ,and also Yue Opera fans ,and accurately to say, a fans of ruihong.It is a pity that we have now chance to enjoy the play in Shanghai. But I also very glad to know there are so many people like this play and my ruihong(please admit me to call her like this:). I hope we Chinese people can see this wonderful play in Shanghai sometime.

(I am sorry my English is very poor.)
Zhang - Re: Dis-Orientations Posted 18:08 on 24 September 2006
Yue Opera purists might find Zhang Ruihong's role in a western contemporary play a little bemusing, however, for those not enslaved by notions of authenticity, Dis-Orientations offers a richly layered narrative and bold theatrical experience that is well-worth your time.
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