For the fun of comedy

Walking into the theater, the audience seems to forget that they are there to watch a play, and instead become participants in a drama class. This is especially true when seeing the actors dressed in high school uniforms, taking turns directing each other, cracking absurd jokes, singing and dancing Yi folk songs, selling potatoes, or even handing out fragrant grilled sausages to the audience. It's hard to believe they are performing a work dating from around 500 BC: Greek Comedy.

The cross-cultural production is featured in this year's Daliangshan Theatre Festival in Sichuan province, coproduced by the Liangshan Culture & Tourism Investment Group and Ireland's Pan Pan Theatre. Of the seven actors onstage, four are local performers of Yi ethnic group; the other two are respectively from Beijing and Liaoning province; and one from Ireland.

When Irish director Gavin Quinn and his team prepared for the production, they gave the actors 11 original texts by Aristophanes, allowing them to choose the plays that interested them the most for reading, imagining, and staging. How they interpreted ancient Greek comedy shaped exactly how they performed on stage.

"Performance is a universal language, and theater is one of the oldest art forms. The human element of comedy comes through no matter which culture you're working with," Quinn says, believing that everyone contributes their own ideas and inspirations and expresses themselves boldly through theater.

During rehearsals, he told the actors, "This rehearsal space is not a prison; it's like a classroom."

"Without this opportunity, I might never have read Greek comedies," says 26-year-old performer Wu Zimo, a member of the Yi ethnic group who lives and performs in Liangshan. For this project, she chose Aristophanes' The Clouds and The Acharnians.

In one scene, Wu sits in a basket used by local farmers for carrying crops, lifted by other actors so she appears to float as she writes meaningless symbols in the air. She adds that this re-creates the most controversial and satirical moment in The Clouds, when Socrates is suspended in a basket beneath the roof, claiming that only in thin air can the mind understand the cosmos. "We can't literally act like the clouds, so we use exaggerated movements to show their shifting, stormy nature," Wu explains.

The Acharnians, a story about the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) from the perspective of ordinary citizens, made Wu realize that comedy's essence is still closely tied to tragedy.

"No matter if it's comedy or tragedy, every play has its purpose. What matters is that each person finds their own inspiration within it," says singer Aluo Zuogumu, also of Yi ethnic group, noting that many of the scenes in the performance were improvised.

For example, in the comedy The Birds, the birds' sharp sound was made by the actors blowing on a piece of plastic. "We discovered it worked well by chance," the singer says.

Audience interaction also introduced spontaneity. When Irish and Chinese actors were struggling with the language, a girl with braided hair jumped onto the stage to help, unexpectedly joining the performance.

However, the troupe faced challenges beyond language, especially merging the two seemingly unrelated traditions of ancient Greece and the Yi ethnic group. This cross-cultural integration is what makes Daliangshan's version of Greek Comedy so distinctive. In ancient Greek plays, choral songs are common; Quinn replaced these with Yi folk songs, most of which recount beautiful love stories.

Quinn sees the Yi performers as playing a crucial role in the production: "They sing, dance, and act. They are energetic and full of charm."

He encouraged the actors not to worry about mistakes. "From birth, we always wonder if we did something right and how to do it better next time. I want the actors and audience to come into the theater without overthinking or feeling burdened — just relax and enjoy."

After the first performance, Quinn had the actors close their eyes and reach out their hands. He handed each of them a bottle of liquor labeled with their name, spelled with tone marks and the Irish blessing: "May you succeed with love".

Bai Shuhao contributed to this story.

China Daily