Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Mei Mac, Laura Tipper, Charlotte Chiew, Minhee Yeo.
It is in the exploration of another’s history that we find that we have more in common than we may believe at first sight. By listening to a story that we might find fantastical, unbelievable, uncompromising in its detail and one that isn’t afraid to show emotion, we might find the empathy and understanding in which to not only accept a different culture, but praise those who bring out the very best of its ideals and philosophy.
The search for love is universal but it comes with great cost no matter where you go in the world, in some quarters it can lead to tragedy, in some countries it can lead to death, and depending on what the nation’s laws and doctrines are at the time it might be one that an onlooker will find upsetting, misinterpreting, perhaps even focusing too much energy upon in an attempt to get that particular culture to change, to adopt the visitor’s culture and therefore denying a rich heritage to survive.
It is in love that Ignite Productions bring Under The Umbrella to the stage, a tale of tradition and ancestors, of hidden secrets laid bare, and one that is open to showing an audience a few of the traumas inflicted upon a generation of girls who were allowed to be killed in China’s one child per family laws. Love and dishonour, love and shame, love and the need by some in which to keep traditional values alive and one in which the writer, Amy Ng, shows how the culture and attitudes of China is not so different when viewed through the eyes of learning.
History will judge harshly China’s policy towards girls before the rules were relaxed recently, and yet history might also hopefully record the sheer beauty that has come out of the country, the attitude of respect, and whilst it seems perfectly odd, almost unorthodox and unthinkable to suggest that a woman is beyond love once they get to a certain age, it is not for Western minds to dictate their own decrees to another nation; it is up to the women of China themselves to beat down such jarring thought and take a stand, a point well carried by the actors on stage.
No heart beats the same, we live in an inconsistent world and what one person wants is not always what another can understand, our lives are Under The Umbrella, be in sunshine or rain, we face it with a covering of vinyl or plastic, afraid of what ghosts will be let loose should the umbrella be upturned and inside out; the umbrella is the safety net and the protection, when it disappears then culture is bound to be blown away.
Ian D. Hall