Nixon in China, Festival Theatre Edinburgh
February 27th 2020
A fantastic evening of musical theatre. Quite an event to have a new production of this work and it was superbly done by all concerned.
There was an original ‘conceit’ in the concept of the production where, unlike, it seems, the original production in Houston where it was performed almost in a documentary style as if of the here and now, in this production this was not the case. The initial setting is an enormous warehouse-like space filled top to ceiling with boxes of files and as the events unfold, all these boxes remain discreetly in the background. Not obtrusive but just ‘there’ as reminder that these events happened in the past. To add to this awareness of past and present, at both sides of the stage and with a video screen at the back, archivists were examining artifacts of this event – contemporary photographs, documents of the actual event that very smartly helped remind us of the fact that historical events like these are re-interpreted and reviewed by those of the present. These figures were omnipresent for the duration of the performance This allowed for some humour at the start of the third act where after a photograph of Nixon meeting Mao we saw other images of unlikely meetings and political friendships, including several of Trump with people such as Putin and Kim Jong which got knowing laughs from the capacity audience and which was very effective in making parallels and comments between events of the past and the present.
The production did have one very effective coup de theatre to show Nixons’ arrival on Air Force 1 in China. In the original production it seems, a large representation of the plane arrived on stage and when I saw the setting for this production I did wonder how they would deal with that iconic moment. But no worries. Very simple and smartly, the stack of file boxes at the back of the stage parted, a steps appeared and the Nixons descended. Very smart!
The demands of the score – fascinatingly more than ‘mere minimalism’ were superbly dealt with by all, singers and instrumentalists and as Madame Mao, Hye-Youn Lee performed the fiendish end-of-Act 2 aria ‘I am the wife of Chairman Mao Tse Tung’ with spectacular aplomb. I think I must read more about the music and I understand there is an excellent book about the work. I did hear hints of Strauss in one section I know and of course the popular music of the 30’s was well used to evoke the Nixons’ early years.
On a different note much enjoyed going to the Festival Theatre for the first time. Very intriguing that I assumed when entering the modern glass and steel lobby that I would then go into a modern theater space but very [leased tp see that it is just a beautifully restored nicely intimate old-fashioned theatre that goes back generations – many generations in fact looking at the fascinating old programmes on display from a time when Max Bygraves was a supporting act!