What I liked
I really enjoyed the acting! Sadie C and Robert Tu gave powerful performances that captivated me. I also enjoyed the use of the Medea character and the dancers there served as a type of “Greek Chrous” through dance. The lighting design and the music helped capture the tone for me as well.
What I didn't like
Of course having the subtitles would have been great but honestly (for me anyways) I actually really enjoyed that I had to look at the show from a different POV due to the language barrier. I had to tap into a different set of skills and I think that made the show hit different. I believe theater should connect on many levels and this show did for me.
Sadie’s character even talks about having issues understanding different dialects in the context of the show, thus making it hard to communicate. So honestly, it added layer to the show for me that I wasn’t expecting.
I also probably would have just checked in with the subtitles if they had been there since I really enjoyed the actors on stage.
My overall impression
Since the show was mostly in Mandarin (and unfortunately the subtitles had a technical difficulty) I needed to tap into other ways of understanding the show. Though knowing what was actually being said would have gave me another level of processing/understanding (of course).
I found that through the acting, the tones of the music/dancing/lighting, use of the Madea character, the little summary I read in the program about the show prior and a few scenes in English connected me to the story of the universal struggles of immigrates and women. We all think we are so different…but we aren’t. The truth is there are universal struggles and some things transcends language.
