REVIEW RED HARE’S WISH, A THREE KINGDOMS MUSICAL at The Space Theatre 13 -17 August and on demand 31 August 2024

‘an ambitious musical project set in the 168BC Imperial China’ ★★★

It says on the programme that this is a Part 1 Showcase. Based on the first 20 chapters of the 14th century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. You can feel that expectations were high in The Space venue amongst those friends and family members who have come to support the cast and crew, entirely of east Asian heritage.

The Western Australia based writer-composer Jialun Qi’s latest project is an ambitious adapted version of act one of a production set in 168BC Imperial China during the final years of the Han Dynasty. The musical piece started with the narrative of restless Liu Bei (Vivi Wei), a sandal maker who joins the army with her brothers Guan Yu (Sheldon Long) and Zhang Fei (Joshua Kwan). The narrative then switched to schemy Cao Cao (Aidan Dobson), a runaway from the law for an attempted assassination of the cruel reigning Lord Regent Dong Zhuo (Horace Chan). Working for the said Lord Regent, is Lu Bu (Leon Hong) a warrior who struggles with his emotions, having lived a life of violence and jealousy to find new romantic love for a woman who hates him, Diao Chan (Belle Ning), who is overly protected by her mother governor Chen Gong (Angle Kwok).

The eight strong ensemble cast performed well together as a team and the choreographed fighting scenes were fascinating. Belle Ning’s heartfelt musical rendition of Diao Chan’s plight and suffering at being hidden away in the court is one of the strongest emotive vocal performances of the evening, as well as Vivi Wei’s Liu Bei opening scene as the determined sandal maker turned warrior. Horace Chan’s Lord Regent’s villain song ‘Do you know who I am’ was surprisingly a pleasantly entertaining and catchy musical piece. The highlight of the show as expected, is no other than Jialun Qi’s original music compositions, comprising traditional East Asian tunes and sound effects with a contemporary twist, a beautiful musical score that immediately transports you to the fantasy land of Ancient China.

This was indeed an ambitious musical project directed by Enrico Liou, and as much as there is passion and drive behind the project’s aims to push boundaries with storytelling, there are too many complex narratives to cover for the duration of a far too short time. If you know the feeling that comes with watching a movie only to be shown an ending scene ‘to be continued’, this was what the audience were disappointingly presented with at the work-in-progress showing of A Three Kingdoms Musical.

There is ample room for development and improvement especially with regards to finding balance between soundtrack quality and vocal projections. We are told that there will be Part 2 coming soon, and for any theatre goer who is enthusiastic about historical period drama and Chinese culture, this is a project by Red Hare’s Wish that is definitely worth watching out for.

Red Hare’s Wish on demand https://space.org.uk/event/red-hares-wish-livestream/

Creatives

Director: Enrico Liou

Composer/Writer: Jialun Qi

Producer: Isa Huiling Liu

Movement Director, Costume Designer: Ting-Ning Wen

Cast

Liu Bei: Vivi Wei

Guan Yu: Sheldon Long

Zhang Fei: Joshua Kwan

Cáo Cāo: Aidan Dobson

Chen Gong: Angle Kwok

Dong Zhou: Horace Chan

Lǚ Bù: Leon Hong

Diao Chan: Belle Ning