Abstract
This article aims to provide spatial analysis of an adaptation of Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea and the musical Shanghai Lady staged in China in 2009 and directed by Shi Jun, a young Chinese associate professor from Shanghai Theatre Academy. The notion of space may be viewed from two perspectives: first, as a textual construction, it reflects the characterization applied and theme shaped by the director; second, as an on-stage theatrical technique, it conveys the director’s understanding and innovative manoeuvre of adaptation in the target culture. The article tries to analyse the spatial renovation in Shanghai Lady, both in the text and on the stage, from the two perspectives mentioned above and aims to reveal the contemporary Chinese ideological reception of Ibsen’s plays and the literary techniques exhibited in its adaptation.
Highlights
This adaptation is at first a peculiar cultural localization, introducing many Chinese elements, such as music, costume and stage settings into the original play
From the perspective of space, this article tries to investigate the efforts made by the Chinese director in reconstructing the female consciousness in the Chinese cultural context and approach the spatial renovation on two levels: textual space and the stage space
Different from Elida in the original play, who is eager to enter the male world of the sea in her search for freedom, Eli in Shanghai Lady has constructed her own female space of the water in which her subjectivity is self-sufficient
Summary
This adaptation is at first a peculiar cultural localization, introducing many Chinese elements, such as music, costume and stage settings into the original play. From the perspective of space, this article tries to investigate the efforts made by the Chinese director in reconstructing the female consciousness in the Chinese cultural context and approach the spatial renovation on two levels: textual space and the stage space.
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