Two Plays by Kuo Pao Kun: Descendants Of The Eunuch Admiral & The Spirits Play

by Kuo Pao Kun

This is a memorial publication of two of the most significant plays by Kuo Pao Kun (1939-2002) whose life and work straddled many cultures and has been such a creative and astringent factor in Singaporean and Asian theatre and intellectual life. The two plays "Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral" and `The Spirits Play' are amplified by an appreciation of Kuo Pao Kun's life and ideas and a commentary essay on the plays.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kiril · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal, visceral, thought-provoking. The first engages with Zheng He as a eunuch, as an ethnic minority, as an explorer - and speculates whether he did so to escape his conscience about being a high-ranking member of a government run by the Yongle emperor, who had usurped his cousin and commanded other eunuchs to set up a secret police network that spied on the high-ranking and the general populace alike. The second is less specific, but features a conversation between several long-dead spirits who recount their experiences with a war that led to their deaths, culminating in an encounter with a dead poet who recounts his time as a reporter from the front, sending back false reports of the army's successes. I'm barely scratching the surface - highly recommend. Would love to see productions of these two plays.

[Hao Guang Tse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elgaic and dreamlike, these two plays by the grandmaster of Singapore theatre are a delight to read. As in most of his plays, there is always a vacillation between transcendental optimism and helpless pessimism. Both plays speak out strongly against that tendency of men to consolidate and bureaucratize power -- this leads to mass castration, mass murder, symbolic or actual. In the end, it seems that Kuo exhorts the reader/audience to be like Zheng He, like the Xiang, who cut off a part of themselves for others. There is an unavoidable violence involved, but self-sacrifice begins a process of creation and renewal in the form of stories emerging and retold to future generations.

[Kllybrekker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technically, I only read The Spirit's play since it's part of theatre studies. We have yet to study the play in class but solely from my reading alone, it did have a strong impact on me to get me thinking about the horrors war brings and the feeling of just wanting to go home. The story of each of the spirits show perspective on different groups about war, and the story's message was shown in quite a surreal way that really gets you thinking.

[Jericho Eames · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I regret not going for 'The Spirits Play' when the Finger players did it! I love the themes that were covered in his plays and they were fun to read as well.

[Shaq · Rating 4 out of 5]

just descendants of the eunuch admiral

[Arun Kalaychelvam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful to read & it is enlightening to understand the complex concepts embedded within the storyline of the plays.