The Red and the Purple: Reflections on the Intercultural Imagination and Multicultural Casting

Abstract

This article critically examines the contextual rationales behind the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) production of The Orphan of Zhao, arguing that the casting choices were linked to the conceptual limitations regarding the presentation of the three plays produced in the ‘A World Elsewhere’ season. After proposing an Asia-centric rationale for tying the new adaptations of Boris Godunov, A Life of Galileo, and The Orphan of Zhao together (such that a substantial East Asian presence would be highly beneficial if not essential) I use Chen Shi-Zheng’s 2003 English-language adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao as a telling point of comparison. The RSC production thus illustrates the shortcomings of colour-blind casting and reveals the broader pattern of discrimination faced by artists of British East Asian descent.

Notes

1. Alexander Pushkin, Pushkin’s Godunov, adapted by Adrian Mitchell (London: Oberon, 2012).

2. Bertolt Brecht, A Life of Galileo, trans. by Mark Ravenhill (London: Bloomsbury Methuen, 2013).

3. ‘Casting Update for The Orphan of Zhao’, Royal Shakespeare Company press release, 30 August 2012 <http://www.rsc.org.uk/about-us/press/releases/casting-update-for-the-orphan-of-zhao.aspx> [accessed 30 June 2014].

4. Brecht on Theatre, ed. and trans. by John Willett (New York: Hill and Wang, 1964), p. 99.

5. Eric Bentley, ‘Introduction’, in Galileo: A Play by Bertolt Brecht, trans. by Charles Laughton (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1966), pp. 7–42 (p. 16).

6. Shi-Zheng Chen, ‘Notes on the Program’, The Orphan of Zhao programme, Lincoln Center Festival 2003, p. 71.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. ‘Two Takes on The Orphan of Zhao’, Panelists: Chen Shi-Zheng, Stephin Merritt, David Patrick Kelly, moderator: Anne Cattaneo, Works and Process at the Guggenheim Series. Recorded 30 June 2003 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

10. Chen, ‘Notes on the Program’, p. 71.

11. Gordon Cox, ‘Revenge That’s Sweet But Bloody’, Newsday, 21 July 2003, section B, p. 13.

12. Chen in ‘Two Takes on The Orphan of Zhao’.

13. Mary Plackett and Julia Grundy, ‘The Orphan of Zhao: Introduction to the Royal Shakespeare Company 2012 production’, Royal Shakespeare Company <https://www.rsc.org.uk/downloads/the-orphan-of-zhao-ad.doc> [accessed 30 June 2014].

14. Daniel York, ‘East Asians Cast Aside for Too Long’, The Stage, 9 November 2012 <http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/analysis-opinion/2012/11/letters-of-the-week-3/> [accessed 30 June 2014].

15. Eleanor Blau, ‘Papp Starts a Shakespeare Repertory Troupe Made up Entirely of Black and Hispanic Actors’, New York Times, 21 January 1979, p. 55.

16. ‘Shakespeare for City Students’, Newsday, 8 October 1986, p. 21.

17. Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, The Nightingale, dir. by Moisés Kaufman, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego, first performed 10 July 2012. The progress of the La Jolla Playhouse Nightingale casting controversy was tracked in a series of articles by Los Angeles Times reporter David Ng: ‘La Jolla Playhouse Gets Heat from Asian Americans Over Casting’, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2012 <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/18/entertainment/la-et-cm-la-jolla-playhouse-asian-casting-nightingale-20120717>; ‘Christopher Ashley Discusses Asian American Backlash at La Jolla’, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2012 <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/18/entertainment/la-et-cm-christopher-ashley-nightingale-asian-american-20120718>; ‘Asian American Theater Leaders React to Nightingale Controversy’, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 2012 <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-asian-american-nightingale-la-jolla-playhouse-20120718-story.html>; ‘Heated Exchanges at La Jolla Playhouse Over Multicultural Casting’, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2012 <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/23/entertainment/la-et-cm-heated-exchanges-at-la-jolla-playhouse-over-nightingale-casting-20120722> [all accessed 4 July 2014].

18. A complete unedited video of the public forum is accessible through the La Jolla Playhouse website: <http://www.lajollaplayhouse.org/nightingale> [accessed 17 July 2014].

19. See for example: Isaac Ho, ‘Déjà Vu All Over Again – The Nightingale and Miss Saigon’, Isaac Ho Writer <http://www.scriptenabler.com/isaachowriter/?p=426> [accessed 5 July 2012]; and Daniel Lehman, ‘Hitting a Bum Note’, Back Stage, 19 July 2012, p. 3.

20. See Angela Pao, ‘The Eyes of the Storm: Gender, Genre and Cross-Casting in Miss Saigon’, Text and Performance Quarterly, 12.1 (1992), 21–39.

21. The implications of these findings and future courses of action were explored in a roundtable discussion held at Fordham College at Lincoln Center on 13 February 2012. The participants included 19 actors, directors, producers, playwrights, and talent agents and approximately 400 people attended the event. See Patrick Healy, ‘Advocates Ask: Why Do Asian-Americans Go Uncast in New York Theater?’, New York Times <http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/advocates-ask-why-do-asian-americans-go-uncast-in-new-york-theater/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0> [accessed 4 July 2014].

22. In the course of a BBC Front Row interview that aired on 19 October 2012, Doran explained: ‘I’m casting a company to play across three plays, so we adopted a policy of non-culturally specific casting, so I actually haven’t been looking for Russian actors or Italian actors specifically’. BBC <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nbtb5> [accessed 28 August 2014]. Shuttleworth wrote in the Financial Times: ‘outrage at this as racism is specious: […] the current ensemble will also present Pushkin’s Boris Godunov and Brecht’s Life of Galileo, yet where are the protests at the absence of a single Russian, German or Italian?’ Ian Shuttleworth, ‘The Orphan of Zhao’, Financial Times, 12 November 2012, p. 15.

23. Youssef Kerkour, ‘Eunuchs and Al Pacino’, 1 October 2012, Royal Shakespeare Company, <http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/blogs/whispers-from-the-wings/eunuchs-and-al-pacino/> [accessed 30 June 2014].

24. Ibid.

25. Chris Lew Kum Hoi, ‘Red Petals and Puppetry’, Royal Shakespeare Company <http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/other-writers/the-orphan-of-zhao-video-interviews.aspx> [accessed 30 June 2014].

26. Plackett and Grundy, ‘The Orphan of Zhao: Introduction’, p. 3.

27. Kerkour, ‘Eunuchs and Al Pacino’.

28. James Fenton, The Orphan of Zhao (London: Faber 2012), p. 65.

29. Ibid, p. 43.

30. Plackett and Grundy, ‘The Orphan of Zhao: Introduction’, p. 3. Emphasis added.

31. York, ‘East Asians Cast aside for Too Long’.

32. The Orphan of Zhao, dir. by Carey Perlofff, American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, co-produced with La Jolla Playhouse, first performed 4 June 2014.

33. The Orphan of Zhao, dir. by Carey Perloff, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego co-produced with the American Conservatory Theatre, first performed 8 July 2014.

34. Patrick Healy, ‘Here Lies Progress: Asian Actors Fill the Playbill’, New York Times, 22 June 2014 <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/theater/here-lies-progress-asian-actors-fill-the-playbill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0> [accessed 30 June 2014].