The Mundane World

Last Friday, the Chinese drama student club, Thus Spoke Ann Arbor, took the stage of Angell Hall Auditorium A, and presented the Mundane World, a play in Mandarin originally written and directed by Meng Jinghui, a Beijing-based leading playwright and director of experimental theater. Meng is especially known for his avant-garde plays, the most famous ones among which are Rhinoceros in Love, Hitler’s Belly, the Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the Murder of the Hanging Garden, and the Mundane World. He developed a distinct and recognizable style of contemporary plays, which could be characterized by their humorous scripts, ridiculous storylines, satirical elements, and a mix of singing and dancing throughout the play.

The Mundane World is one of Meng’s signature works. The adaptation by Thus Spoke Ann Arbor is divided into four acts, developing three different storylines. The first one is about the romance between a monk and a Buddhist nun who ponder whether to resume secular life after observing the expressive love between a young couple. The second one is adapted from a story from the Decameron about a young man who falls in love with the daughter of a humble countryman. In an attempt to sleep with the young lady, the young man stays overnight at the countryman’s house, after which all the hosts and guests end up in the wrong beds. The third one, also from the Decameron, is about a stableman who pretends to be the king to spend the night with the queen, and fools the furious king who later knows about the illicit affair.

The script was beautifully written. Many lines were hilarious and others thought-provoking. The acting throughout the play was excellent. Act III adopted a quite unusual way to present the story: the stage was cut off into two parts as if there was an invisible line in the middle. The dilemma of the protagonists was cleverly shown by arranging two groups of actors/actress mirroring each other and performing at the same time to represent the two inner voices of the protagonists debating against each other.

I really enjoyed this comedy-drama, and I look forward to future plays presented by Thus Spoke Ann Arbor. The trailer of the play could be found under the link below (apologies for Chinese dub only):