Hand Stories
Opening Night: July 19, 2012
Closing: July 25, 2012
Theater: Clark Studio Theater
Hand Stories is a magical hour-long show that brilliantly interweaves modern multimedia effects with the ancient Chinese puppetry tradition. Yeung Faï unravels his own autobiographical story, which takes him from China to the streets of Hong Kong, Brazil, and Europe, through traditional depictions of concubines, tigers, and warriors—plus a vision of a guardian angel in the form of a fan of the 1980s rock band Queen.
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July 19, 2012
A guardian angel singing snatches from the greatest hits of the British rock band Queen is perhaps the strangest apparition in “Hand Stories,” an autobiographical work from Yeung Fai, a Chinese-born puppeteer, presented at the Clark Studio Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Mr. Yeung, the show’s creator and the principal puppeteer, was born to a father celebrated for his glove puppetry, a traditional Chinese art form that dates back centuries and is passed down directly through families. In an early sequence we watch a film from the 1960s of Mr. Yeung’s father, Yang Shen, performing a scene of courtship between a lord and lady projected on a narrow strip of screen at the back of the stage. Mr. Yeung then performs the same scene live, using beautifully fashioned hand puppets that move with a delicacy that evokes real movement and also gently lampoons it to humorous effect.
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