Rape

Abstract

Chinese avant-garde playwright Zhang Xian’s play Rape, initially completed in 2001, is a poignantly compelling postmodern drama on gender, politics, and power reversal situated in an imagined temporal and spatial setting. The play consists of a male character speaking throughout the play and a female character who remains mute and voiceless. From the man’s monologue, we come to realize that she seems to be Antigone in Sophocles’ play, while the man seems to be Creon, King of Thebes. In fact, the play is not the story of Antigone and Creon, but an abstract fable about politics in the East. These monologues of the male rapist contain strong language and large amounts of sexual content, which by themselves are figurative articulations in a political allegory. Reader discretion is strongly advised considering the play’s heavy graphic content, as well as the character’s provocative, ferocious, and potentially offensive expressions. The playwright Zhang Xian is aware that many of his plays, including this one, have not been staged in China because of his resistance against the institutional role of Chinese theater. He candidly observes his role to be that of “a special society performer—a dissident actor playing his unofficial part in China’s National Drama.” As a representation of Zhang’s work, Rape is forward-looking not only because of its productive new interpretations in the Chinese and global contexts of the #MeToo movement and feminist awakening, but also because of its ambition in projecting a distinctive anti-authoritarian political philosophy.