FAMILY feuds, though common, are never easy to tackle especially in a play reflective of its writer’s past.
But David Henry Hwang nevertheless ventures into the matter in his play, Golden Child which was staged last August 9 at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Little Theater. It is the story of a Chinese family struggling with a conflict of beliefs. And it is also essentially Hwang’s story, a piece he wrote at the onset of fatherhood in 1995.
The Asian-American playwright then was anxious about the new phase in his life, to think that he was yet to come to terms with many areas in his own past.
Though the play is still largely fictional, much of the inspiration was taken from Hwang’s family history recorded in cassette tapes. They were the collective memory of Hwang’s Ama or grandmother, arguably the family’s most reliable chronicler. When she fell ill the grandson took it upon himself to record her stories not knowing that the tapes would later inspire a material on stage.
Chinese past
The play opens with the lead character Ahn, the golden child, visiting her grandson Andrew Kwong in a dream. She tells Andrew their family history as a last-ditch effort to preserve the family’s enduring saga.
The story begins when Ahn’s father, Eng Tieng Bin, returns to China after years of doing business in the Philippines. Coming home a “westernized” Chinese, he seems all set to let go of his Chinese traditions such as ancestor worship and feet-binding. Christianity, a western religion, requires him to stick to one wife prompting a bitter competition among his women.
Chinese or not, any audience would find the play compelling and rich in Chinese values. One will be drawn to appreciate and understand the typical family story of Chinese families with Hwang’s straightforward and honest approach. Hwang is successful in portraying the friction between the original Chinese tradition and the intruding Western values in his lead character’s family.
The play has been revised many times since its first showing in 1996, but Hwang believes that the journey toward the right version continues. Previews help him gauge crowd reception, allowing him to improve on the material for regular showing.
“The preview process is great because I (get to) listen to the audience,” he said during an interview in the Writers’ Forum held at the CCP. “I learn about my play, I go home, I rewrite things, I bring them in the next morning, the actors learn them and perform the new pages that night. And then we do it all over again.”
Finding directors
In staging his works, Hwang rarely argues with his director. He said the challenge was choosing a director.
“We must have the same vision,” he said. Hwang believes writers should take the initiative to seek directors.
In M. Butterfly for instance, both Hwang and his producer took interest in John Dexter to direct the play. Never mind if he supposedly carried a bad reputation. Seemingly true enough, Dexter was all work, never bothering for small talk. One day, Dexter asked Hwang if they could read the script to each other. The process allowed them to understand how one felt with the interpretation of the script.
“I’ve never actually found another director who wanted to do that, but I thought it was a pretty good process,” Hwang said.
Learning that what usually happens here in the Philippines is a director looking for a writer rather than the other way around, Hwang suggested that “one could try [to] move things into a direction where one can be more writer-focused.” He thought it best for a writer to discuss with the director how they both envisioned the play.
Play as literature
“Back in Shakespeare’s time, plays were not considered literature,” Hwang said. They were considered to be more of a script, like a television script or a screenplay.
Hwang did not put too much thought in having his works published. But now, times have changed. “I’m happy that my work is considered literature. On the other hand, another part of me did not believe that,” he said.
According to Hwang, nowadays, works are only considered literature once they have been published. But he believes that plays are both pieces of literature and music.
“It’s not about what the notes are in the staff; it is how it sounds in the air,” he explained. Hwang went on to say that “words on the page are not important; but the theatrical moments that are created in the stage.”
And for Hwang, a play is but a means to a higher end. “And the end is more important than the means,” he said. A. R. D. S. Bordado and E.R.U. Yu
