MCLC: play about Ai Weiwei's arrest

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: play about Ai Weiwei's arrest
***********************************************************

Source: Voice of America (4/18/13):
http://www.voanews.com/content/expression_on_trial_in_play_of_ai_weiwei_arr
est_in_china/1644237.html

Expression on Trial in Play of Ai Weiwei's Arrest
By Reuters

LONDON — Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was in two places at once on
Wednesday night. In Beijing, barred from leaving the country, and in the
leafy London borough of Hampstead - on stage.

Such a breaking of boundaries has come to define Ai. The sculptor,
photographer and installation artist is famed for filling London's Tate
Modern with porcelain seeds and as a consultant on China's National
"Bird's Nest" Stadium. But he also has snapped his wife flashing her
knickers in Tiananmen Square.

The world premiere of "#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei,"
<http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2013/main-stage-aiww-the-arrest-o
f-ai-weiwei/> which opened to a packed Hampstead theater, addresses the
artist's clash with Chinese authority over freedom of expression. The
title's hashtag is a reference to Ai's prolific use of social networking
site Twitter to get his message out.

"There is a force you cannot avoid," says Ai's character, played by
Benedict Wong, as the play opens. He is standing in front of his new work,
four connected walls which stand inside a gallery, surrounded by visitors
and fans. He signs an autograph.

As the scene changes the walls become a prison cell.

Just hours before in Beijing, Ai told Reuters that the play based on
Barnaby Martin's book "Hanging Man" was the fruit of interviews that he
hoped would help to demonstrate the monolithic truths of a Chinese state
which holds him physically captive, but can't seem to stop his ideas from
seeping out.

"This society lacks transparency, lacks a platform and space for public
opinion. So that's why I accepted the interviews and the play finally
worked out," Ai told Reuters TV.

Howard Brenton's play tells the story of the Chinese artist's 81 days in
custody.

Ai was arrested at Beijing airport in April 2011 before a flight to Hong
Kong. He was held without explanation before being charged with tax
evasion and given a $2.4 million bill.

He supposedly confessed to the charge while in custody but later disputed
it, losing his ultimate court appeal last September.

"I think the reason behind the play is to let the truth out, to let the
people in the world understand what kind of condition we live in," Ai said.

Kafkaesque theme

The telling of the story of Ai's darkest hours to date is in keeping with
the artist and the theme of the play - that personal expression is
sacrosanct.

"Everything mentioned [in the play] is fact and it also is an art work,"
said Ai.

The play will be streamed for free on the Internet
<http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/news/2013/04/watch-aiww-live-streaming-her
e-this-friday/>, a first for a mainstream London theater, allowing the
story to reach a global audience.

An artist's "job is about communication and expression. These are the core
values of life, of being individuals. Most people don't realize that they
have to fight for this, but for us artists, it's necessary," Ai wrote in a
column for theGuardian this week.

This role of the artist frequently has been at odds with the Chinese party
line. In the play Ai's interrogators call him a con-man and a swindler,
selling junk for profit.

A Chinese minister, when asked what should be done with Ai, said "get him
to go back to painting leaves and pagodas."

Throughout the play runs an absurdity, a lack of explanation or sense,
that is reminiscent of Kafka.

"The play isn't deliberately Kafka-like, but the interrogations were often
inexplicable, bizarre, they came at Ai Weiwei from very curious angles
then will break down," said Brenton. "Rather like Kafka's 'The Trial,'
Josef K.'s experience, he could not make sense of what was happening to
him."

But unlike Kafka, humanity shines through the cracks in the system. There
remains a sense of humor and of hope that freedom of expression cannot be
suppressed forever.

At one point the interrogation of Ai breaks down into a conversation about
how to make the perfect Beijing noodles. When he is moved to an army camp
the soldiers guarding him complain about their jobs and the difficulty of
their training.

By the end, the interrogators admit that "talking to you, we've changed
our view of art."

In the background, however, violence always looms.

"One day though, we will have to open fire," a security official said
about the threat of rebellion. "And we will," responded his colleague.

Ai told Reuters he was not afraid of fallout from the play. "I don't think
it will bring me more danger because I have already gone through it."