What I liked
The ingenuity of the play lies in its delivery of maximum meanings within a limited space and economic use of stage effect. Props are flexibly used to suggest multiple objects and actions. For example, lantern, the most dominant prop in the play, symbolizes stories in both its physical and abstract form, artist inspiration, optimism and faith in liberation. Traffic cones can represent both rules, authority, and the speaker for the “tyrant.” A miniature traditional Chinese house is set at the corner of the stage, by which an actor placed a torch to make a gigantic house-shape shadow. I find these inventions adorable.
What I didn't like
The background sound in the very beginning was a little too loud. It could be lowered so the audience could hear the actor’s first speech more clearly.
My overall impression
A daring masterstroke that creatively wields its narrative dexterity to illuminate the magic of storytelling itself. It exquisitely translates the almost imperceptible cultural consciousness across Eastern and Western, ancient and modern sensitivities.
With its potential in an infinity of plausible connotations, the overall play in the Dorie Theatre’s cubic space could be interpreted as a representation of an artist’s mind, in which sparks of inspirations poignantly struggle to freely express themselves against limits set by an anonymous tyrant.
