Leftover women

The following review of a Chinese-language play was written by Elyse Ribbons, a Beijing-based dramatist whose recent works include Lethal English and I Heart Beijing, both produced by the Cheeky Monkey Theater company.

While perhaps aiming a little high with its English title “Pride and Prejudice 2008”, the play 剩女郎 (which really should be titled “Leftover Women”) was actually a rather interesting look at the contemporary female plight in China’s bustling modern cities. As with so many TV soaps, the main character in this show is an editor at a trendy fashion magazine but remains unfashionably single. With the ‘help’ of her meddling friend, she is set up on a blind date with a net-friend and the story develops from there.

While much of the dialogue was fluff picked out of a Cosmo or Harper’s Bazaar, some of the issues addressed were actually very timely and interesting. Marriage for money/convenience versus marriage for love (money won out, surprisingly) as well as the ridiculously high standards for future mates both were appropriately mocked and embraced. Other issues like abortion were more conservatively discussed. A rather unfortunate choice of plot-development was a malfunctioning elevator and incredibly glib references to earthquakes.

At the end of the play, they concluded with a note to the audience saying that love can be strengthened through life and death experiences and while the elevator problem hadn’t been an actual earthquake (only a poorly-maintained elevator), that Beijing later had a real earthquake. This statement, while seemingly sentimental, doesn’t actually make any sense. A girl next to me cursed at the director under her breath, saying “Beijing had an earthquake?! They should see my hometown!”. The friend who I went with also felt very offended by the note and wondered why they would even include it in the play.

This bit of controversy aside, the play was amusing and several parts of the dialogue were very well-written and performed spectacularly by the two lead actresses (both of whom are ever-so-fashionably from Shanghai as well). There were some interesting theatrical techniques thrown in as well, which makes the show worth a watch. Playing at the small stage at the Peoples’ Arts Theater, the “Leftover Women” will be up again later this autumn.