National Theatre of China and PlayKing's CHO CHO Comes to Melbourne, Now thru Oct 6
The National Theatre of China and PlayKing Productions have announced a Melbourne season of their award winning Chinese-Australian production Cho Cho at the Arts Centre Melbourne from tonight, 2-6 October.
Cho Cho, an Australian-first bilingual musical drama, premiered at The National Theatre of China in Beijing in January and won the theatre and partnership categories of the Australian Arts in Asia Awards in Sydney last week. It encompasses theatre, music and puppetry and stars Australian musical theatre star Scott Irwin (Hairspray), director Peter Wilson (King Kong), plus Chinese pop star Wang Zheng.
Cho Cho is an updated version of Cho Cho San, Australian writer Daniel Keene's 1980s reworking of Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, exploring the theme of cross cultural misunderstanding leading ultimately to tragedy.
On a midsummer's night, in a bustling 1930s Shanghai, a young maiden is seen by the river, softly singing a lullaby to the young child she cradles in her arms. Next we see her at 15, living off a meagre wage and working at a tea house where she was praised for her voice and beauty. It was here where she caught the attention of American Lieutenant Pinkerton, who called her by the name of 'Butterfly'.
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