Time: 5:15pmVenue: The Octagon, Queen Mary University of London E1 4NS
China Arts Now present a special Preview Performance
‘Lao Can Impression’ by Concert Theatre fuses the music of Debussy with a dramatic adaptation of the classic story ‘The Travels of Lao Can’ by the famous Chinese writer Li
Liu met Debussy on the stage – a beautiful encounter and a clever blend’ Anniel Hao, Pareviews
After a sell-out run at the National Theatre of Taiwan, this unique production comes to London for the first time.
Based on Liu Er’s Lao Can‘s Travels and Debussy’s chamber and orchestral music, Lao Can Impression explores the cultural exchange between east and west by combining Chinese and western approaches to music and drama. Three musicians highlight the eastern influences in Debussy’s music while two actors tell Liu’s story about westernisation in China in the 1900s. By fusing the two together, the piece looks at modernisation and how we can move forward by using our past, not destroying it.
The piece is directed and written by An-Ting Chang (Artistic Director of Concert Theatre and Chinese Arts Now), with the devisers and performers Hsu Hua-Chien and Chih-I Chang, three concert musicians, Li-Chi Chiang (piano), Yun-Ju Chen (flute) and Jen-Hsin Kung (cello) and stage design by Wang Jing.
‘Concert Theatre aims to be a perfect amalgam of both art forms’ Hannah Nepil, Financial Times
Featuring music by Debussy including La Mer, Images, Cello Sonata
Duration: 80 minutes
FREE ADMISSION