Sunday Salon – Weekend Quartet by Gao Xingjian

We kick off our 2018-19 season of Sunday Salons with Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, and his beautiful, intimate Weekend Quartet (1995).

THE PLAY

“As with most of Gao Xingjian’s plays, Weekend Quartet is not made up of external actions but of the interior landscapes of the soul. It is a play about characters and also their self-examinations: they are likened to musical instruments playing life’s sorrowful tunes. The audience gets to know the truth of their private selves through their monologues, comprising dream sequences, hallucinations, and memory flashes. These lapses into the subconscious punctuate the realistic setting and situations and resonate with a disharmony that characterizes the world of the play.”
~ Gilbert C. F. Fong, translator

Weekend Quartet is one of Gao’s post-exile plays, originally written in French (Quatre Quatuors pour un Week-end). The play was commissioned by Bibliothèque Municipale de Joué-lès-Tours and sponsored by Le Centre National du Livre de France

THE PLAYWRIGHT
Gao Xingjian received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000, the first Chinese writer to receive the award. A resident of France since 1987, he has also been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1992. In addition to Weekend Quartet he has written nearly 20 plays, including The Other Shore, Absolute Signal, and Wilderness Man, which sparked a wave of experimental drama in China. He is probably best known in the USA for his novel, Soul Mountain.
Gao’s plays “are graced by beautiful language and original imagery…they serve to illuminate the gritty realities of life, death, sex, loneliness, and exile.”

THE CAST: TBA
Anne
Bernard
Cecile
Daniel

ABOUT THE SUNDAY SALONS
APL casts actors to read classic and/or provocative plays we want to engage as thinking artists but aren’t likely to bring to stage in full production. Anyone interested in the play or its context can join us. Each Salon is a unique, dynamic assembly of artists, intellectuals, provocateurs, friends, and family. We read, drink, eat, and — with minimal moderation — let discussion go where it will.

The program is supported, in part, by a grant from 4Culture.

FOOD
Salons are potluck. Please bring a dish and/or drink to share.

FOR YOUR COMFORT
Seating is ample, but feel free to bring a cushion if you prefer the (hardwood) floor.

ACCESSIBILITY
Our location has a lot of stairs to navigate (15 just to enter) and, unfortunately, no current access options to avoid them.

SCHEDULE
4:00pm Arrivals. Mingling and food/drinks.
5:15-5:30pm Reading begins, to be followed by discussion.
10:00pm End time is a best guess. Leave when you need to; we allow the discussion to run its course.

Share