For the first time, a play at Cape Breton University’s Boardmore Theatre is being presented in Mandarin.
Chinese students at the university make up most of the cast in the production called “The Sadness of Comedy,” a story set during the Second World War.
Yefung Ai - known as “Ocean” around campus - was a theatre actor in China and hoped to continue acting when he moved to Cape Breton in the fall of 2023.
It’s also an opportunity to hone his skills on stage - before a live audience - in his own language.
“I was concerned about if they could get the humour, because we have different cultures,” Ai said. “But it’s good. I think they can get all the jokes.”
The play includes English subtitles, helping the non-Mandarin speakers keep up with the dialogue while still giving Chinese students a chance to see live theatre in their home language.
“It’s been an interesting process because I barely know any Chinese myself,” said co-director Jule Ann Hardy. “It’s been the big joke, about how I only know a couple of words.”
The production is the second international language play at the Boardmore Theatre as students from India performed in the Hindi language a few years ago.
Organizers feel it’s important to reflect the school’s multiculturalism on stage, noting how the opening night audience – which featured international students and local – reacted to the dialogue in notably different ways.
“You could tell when the joke was coming from them listening and not reading the subtitles, because they would laugh quicker,” Hardy said. “And then the people who spoke English in the audience, they would laugh once they finished reading the subtitles.”
The performances have an added cultural meaning as they take place during the week of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Hardy encourages anyone with an interest in live theatre to brave the language barrier and come watch.
“Even if it’s set in China, even if it’s in Mandarin, it doesn’t matter because the story is fairly universal,” she said.
“I just hope we can be a good start for other international theatre plays,” Ai said.
“The Sadness of Comedy” runs every evening the rest of the week, ending with a Sunday matinee.
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