With the exception of the stage lighting, the rest of the Zhuhai Opera House was a brilliant pitch black. The ceiling of the opera house projected serene images of the starry night sky with a vast array of stars found in the Milky Way. So perfect...for a nice nap. I glanced to my left. My host brother Rick was already beginning to slump over, eyes glazed over and mouth wide open. Why had mama done this? On a night when the rest of the Duke Engage squad had booked a KTV venue for an evening of comradery and karaoke, she had brought me and a protesting Rick to the opera house to see a Chinese dramatic play. And even thought this play, Thunderstorm, was supposed to be a Chinese classic by the great dramatist Cao Yu and the tickets themselves were quite pricey, I was definitely feeling pretty down as I sat at the opening of the show, mentally preparing myself for three hours of rapid-fire verbiage.
But when the curtains opened, and the actors began to work their craft, I soon forgot about the starry night sky, about how tired I had felt, and finally about the karaoke event that was happening somewhere else in Zhuhai. Because for the next three hours, I became an intimate onlooker into the calamitous, dysfunctional home that was the Zhou family, an insider who knew all of the salacious affairs that were happening between the characters unbeknownst to one another. Even Rick had awoken from his slumber to observe the soap opera debacle that was tearing the Zhou family apart. There were a few risqué thematic elements and scenes in the play, however, and for those, I had to cover Rick’s eyes. But as the play proceeded toward the cathartic climax when Zhou Ping and Si Feng finally realize that their relationship had been one of incest and unspeakable taboo, both Rick and I were glued to the front of our seats with our eyes transfixed on the tragedy that was unfolding onstage. Only when the actors were taking their final bow did I realize that three hours of theater had passed and how much I had wished that there were three more.
Thunderstorm is a play no doubt written with Shakespearean and Grecian influences. Elements of catharsis, dramatic irony, comedic relief, and hubris are prevalent throughout the plot, and the thematic approach closely follows the conventions of theatrical tragedy. Though the entirety of the play was performed in Chinese, specifically with early 20th century spoken language, what truly amazed me was that I was still able to recognize these foundational elements of theatrical works amidst the Chinese dialogue, actors, and props. To sit in a theater half-across the world and still experience the same feelings of heartbreak and human suffering fundamental to the human experience - that was simply another testament to the tremendous reach of the arts and humanities. Rick was complaining about the play the whole time, but I knew deep down that he too was touched by some of the events that we saw that night. There will definitely be other times for karaoke. Opportunities for the introspection of the human soul, on the other hand, are much less common.