Given the comparatively balmy weather we've enjoyed in recent days, it seems only appropriate the Champaign-Urbana is playing host to a rare performance of The Peony Pavilion. After all, this sixteenth-century masterwork of Chinese literature and drama is, at its core, about Spring Fever, something to which all of us can relate just about now.
Admission is free of charge and open to the general public.
In its entire 55 acts, The Peony Pavilion addresses issues of gender, romantic and erotic desire, and the subjugation of women in traditional Confucian belief. Written by the Ming dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu in 1598, it is surprisingly progressive in its lyrical depiction of female sexuality, and in its denouncement of the cold rationality and hierarchical emphasis of neo-Confucian orthodoxy which strangled all forms of naturalness and shackled women in the cruelest way. Secluded in her chambers by parents anxious to arrange an advantageous marriage, Du pines for a passion and a lover she does not know. While contemplating the beauty of a garden in Spring, she falls asleep, and her lover comes to her in the dreamworld. Eventually, Du dies an old maid, but before pining away entirely she paints a self portrait and hides it in the garden.