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Theater for the senses

2014-12-22 10:24 Shanghai Star Web Editor: Si Huan
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The show Just Play It will have scent pumped through the theater. [Photo provided to Shanghai Star]

The show Just Play It will have scent pumped through the theater. [Photo provided to Shanghai Star]

Shanghai theater lovers will have the chance to sniff and snap, as well as see and hear, during the coming season.

From a radio drama to a play you can smell — Shanghai theater-goers can expect something out of the ordinary over the Christmas and New Year season.

Tong Zirong and Liu Guangning along with other acclaimed voice actors, will present a new Agatha Christie play, Murder on Air, from Dec 19 to Jan 18, 2015 at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center.

Another show, Just Play It, will have pipes installed underneath the theater's seats, that will diffuse aroma oil throughout. The play by Ismene Ting is based on the true story of Hsu Tse-chen, a young blind man learning to play the piano with American professor John Vaughan.

Two performances of Just Play It will be staged at the Oriental Art Center on Jan 3-4. The audience will not only watch the play, listen to live music played on two triangle pianos on stage and smell the signature essential oil blends especially designed for the show, they will also have a chance to take photos of the show, when actors invite flashlights and camera shutters during the performance.

Just Play It premiered in 2010 and has been performed 100 times already. Ting's latest interpretation of the play aims to break more boundaries and bring some unprecedented practices into theater in China.

Often staff members in theaters point laser lights at audience members when they are caught taking pictures during the performance. The shutter sound and flashlight will disturb the actors so that they have to be stopped, but Ting wants to turn that to a positive direction. "During the performance, we will set aside a short period of time for the audience to take pictures."

"We have noticed how people like sharing pictures on social media and that can be good publicity for the show," she says. "What we have to do is to give clear instructions and make sure photography is only welcome in that particular period."

Just Play It is the story of Hsu's growth as a young man with visual difficulty, and his development as a musician, under the guidance of Prof. Vaughan. Ting wrote the play based on conversations with the teacher and student.

Hsu and Vaughan are on stage presenting their own story. As Hsu can't see the stage or the audience, Ting thought of introducing aroma diffusion, to enrich the experience for him, as well as the audience.

Four specially designed aroma oils will be used during the show, to reflect the flow of emotions and change of atmosphere.

Murder on Air, similar to Just Play It, is also about the audio experience, but actors will be seen on stage, literally reading the story in a sitting position.

Some actors with Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center will be working alongside the voice actors in the play. They often have to resist the impulse to perform with their limbs, and focus on the "telling" of the story instead.

"A live radio play on stage, this is a new experiment. It is the first time it has happened in China, but it has been done in Britain before," says Tong Xin, producer of the show and head of the Mouse Trap Theater Workshop. The success of many Christie plays by the workshop in recent years has gained audience belief in the new project. The first few performances have already sold out weeks in advance.

More than 20 years ago, China dubbed all foreign films and TV shows in Chinese pronunciation. That practice has made the voices of Tong Zirong and his colleagues highly recognizable and widely loved all over the country.

Murder on Air

7:30 pm, Tue-Sat, 2 pm, Sat-Sun, Dec 19-Jan 18, 2015, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center –Drama Salon, 3F, 288 Anfu Road, Xuhui district, 021-6473-0123

300 yuan

Just Play It

7:15 pm, Jan 3-4, Oriental Art Center-Opera Hall, 425 Dingxiang Road, Pudong New Area, 021-6854-1234

80-580 yuan

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