Tarragon Theatre in affiliation with Why Not Theatre and Broadleaf Artistic/Benevolence, created and carried out by Kevin Matthew Wong, consulting course by Mike Payette, Tarragon Extraspace, closes Could 4. Tickets right here.
Generally a performer is so partaking that they may very well be studying a phone listing and nonetheless captivate an viewers.
Such a one is Kevin Matthew Wong whose world premiere “theatre play” Benevolence, at the moment working on the Tarragon, is an absolute delight on each degree. (Wong calls his present a theatre play, therefore the citation marks.)
Wong is one thing of a polymath.
His credit for Benevolence embody performer, creator, director, author, and video and projection designer. The one issues he didn’t do immediately are set and lighting (Echo Zhou) and sound (Chris Ross-Ewart). Yizhou Zhang is credited as dramaturg and Tarragon creative director Mike Payette as consulting director. Nonetheless, we’ve to treat Wong as a really gifted one-man band.
Background
Benevolence is about Wong connecting to his Hakka roots.
The wellspring is his being requested to create a play for seniors concerning the Hakka expertise by a really persistent Jamaican Hakka referred to as Sonja. This play can be carried out in entrance of the hundreds of Hakka from everywhere in the world who will collect for a Hakka convention.
And what’s extra, Wong has solely a few weeks to tug the present collectively. (The actor additionally performs Sonja together with all the opposite characters we meet throughout his journey.)
The Hakka
The Hakka have been a nomadic tribe who have been the final emigrate south into mainline China. Although they’re carefully associated to the bulk Han Chinese language, the Hakka have their very own language and tradition. Because of their late arrival, they needed to dwell on the margins of society as a result of the great agricultural land was already taken.
They name themselves “visitor folks” as a result of they needed to preserve migrating, each due to poor dwelling situations and periodic massacres inflicted on them by the Cantonese and different Southern Han. Thus, the Hakka could be discovered actually everywhere in the world.
As Wong discovers by way of a sequence of encounters with aged Hakka, together with his grandmother, as a folks the Hakka are thought-about to be hard-working, egalitarian (significantly within the case of ladies), fiercely impartial, and most of all joyous. The Hakka love a superb time.
The Present
Wong’s foremost fact-finding contacts are Sonja, Peter Wong, head of the Vancouver Tsung Tsin Benevolent Affiliation, and an aged keeper of the Victoria Hakka temple.
As acknowledged earlier than, Wong’s potential to manifest himself, each bodily and vocally, inside these characters is just marvellous. Wong’s imitation expertise are uncanny.
The idea of the Tsung Tsin Benevolent Affiliation is essential. Not solely does it give Benevolence its title, however it additionally represents a vital Hakka trait, particularly, the agency perception in serving to one another in time of want.
Discovering out concerning the Hakka for Wong is a profound journey of self-discovery. He all the time used to say his background is Chinese language, however by the top of Benevolence, he is ready to firmly declare that he’s Hakka.
The Manufacturing
What makes Benevolence such an pleasant expertise is the stunning method Wong makes use of props, which accurately festoon the stage. Props that seem like one factor can immediately rework into one thing else, and I hesitate to provide away any of those very amusing photos.
There are additionally some very startling scenic results which add to the imaginative nature of the play, specifically, the ending Lion Dance. As nicely, the projections and movies that are so vital to Wong’s chronicle, are deftly chosen. Humour performs an enormous half within the present.
The Performer
Wong is a charmer. His smile is entrancing and his rapport with the viewers is really a present. He is also a ravishing mover with a dancer’s grace.
As Wong speaks, he makes use of his very expressive arms, that are a really enticing part to his stage presence.
Ultimate Ideas
In brief, Wong has given us a much-needed life-affirming theatre play as an antidote in opposition to a troubled world. Benevolence is critical, touching, and amusing all on the identical time, and shouldn’t be missed.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, significantly on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.