Glass Menagerie and its Beyond
by Sean Yeh 'Tis a medley of languages, words and music, of naiveté and sophistication, of smell and sight and hearing all mixed up. 'Tis of Forms.
'Tis a walled arena, or a glass menagerie, where human desire overflows itself, finally an evolution of Bestiality into Divinity.
Baboo's Quartette ingeniously tells of the universal truth of Love that takes on a diversity of forms, its structure being a process of multi-orgasms with evanescent sweetness interwoven in between. More prominent is the violence inborn with it. Torture is as inevitable, as Hell.
Hsu Yen-ling's quite a spectacle. She is the perfect personification of all the essences of emotions involved. Her spoken lines, when resonating with the French recitations by Valentin Lechat and Ma Chao-chi, construct an atmosphere almost surreal, feathery and nebulous, engulfing every viewer, deluding him / her into a dream, be it a nightmare, or not.
In contrast to the dreaminess throughout, Andreas Kern the pianist serves as an anchor, or God: sculptural, monumental, controlling the cadence, giving orders. Kern enlivens the rhythm of the play in his own indifferent, godly light.
Eventually in the white noise when Hsu is stripped of her gown, namely her History, and steps into the crimson high heels the colour of blood, in a posture as upright / erectile as ever, the chaos too comes to an abrupt end. Hsu's elevation in height not only is metaphorical but also does cast a light over the audience, with the whole process of catharsis completed.
Though for how long the erection will last, we're not sure. All things will have to collapse--after all.
Quartett von Heiner Müller
Script by Heiner Müller
Direction by Baboo
With Hsu Yen-ling, Alejandro Chen and Andreas Kern
