INTERVIEW: New play reimagines Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’
Photo: Sky of Darkness by Siting Yang plays June 2-12 in New York City. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Kamila Slawinski PR with permission.
Siting Yang’s new play, Sky of Darkness, is a dramaturgical response to Joseph Conrad’s controversial classic Heart of Darkness and Chinua Achebe’s response to the novel. In this version, which centers on neocolonialism, race and personal choice, events surround a Chinese national who finds himself in the service of a huge government-owned industrial conglomerate selling and operating military equipment in West Africa, according to press notes. Instead of Conrad’s protagonist of Marlowe, Yang creates the character of Ma Luo (HanJie Chow), a young Chinese pilot who believes he can make a contribution to the aviation industry in Mali, but he soon learns his goals may be unattainable.
Sky of Darkness will play June 2-12 at Theaterlab in Midtown Manhattan. The production comes to New York City courtesy of Pan Palisetty Production, with direction by Rakesh Palisetty. This engagement will be the play’s world premiere.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Yang, a playwright, director and scholar from Beijing, now based in New York City. Some of her previous credits include Ward No. 6, V.A.B.E.L. and TTD. She is currently enrolled in a German literature PhD program at Harvard University. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What inspired you to tell this story?
This story is inspired by the real experience of my friend, who is also the prototype of the protagonist. This friend of mine works in Sahel area in West Africa on behalf of a Chinese state-owned enterprise to sell attackers to African government air forces. When I heard about his experience — from the anecdotes about wars and terrorist attacks in Africa, to their impression towards African people and society, to mundane details of everyday life — I couldn’t help but connect his story to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Juxtaposing my friend’s fresh contemporary experiences to a 19th century classic of English literature, I was fascinated by the rich space between the personal, the political, and the fictional tradition that shaped how we perceive and tell the story of the personal and the political. I want to discuss the ethical anxiety of modern individuals in the context of global socio-political and racial relations, where the encounter with the colonial “others” can no longer be discussed without being questioned by the point of view from the “others” themselves. One quote from Chinua Achebe would best sum up my essential intention behind this play: “[…] I’m trying to tell people they’re more racist than they thought.”
Did you go back to Heart of Darkness and Chinua Achebe’s writings for some ideas on updating the story?
For me, Heart of Darkness, Achebe’s criticism and Ma Luo’s story go hand in hand. Ma Luo’s story would be shapeless without the story and motives of Heart of Darkness and the interrogation from Achebe. Achebe’s criticism and his own fictional writings are already an update on Heart of Darkness — in today’s English classrooms no one can read Conrad without discussing Achebe’s comments. My work, if I may compare it to those of the great Polish novelist and the African scholar-writer, is one more update on the original story. It is an attempt to track the change of the historical consciousness about colonialism and racism through different re-telling of the same narrative, each bringing new questions from their specific conditions.
What do you feel the play says about some of the global issues in 2022?
The play is certainly a comment on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and a footnote on people’s precarious belief in global economic cooperation at all, especially after the pandemic further isolated not only individuals but also different countries and ideologies. Writing in the U.S. a Chinese story that takes place in Africa, in the aftermath of the BLM movement, brings the story a nuanced relevance in the discussion of anti-racism. I believe as a Chinese-born artist based in the U.S., I am in a unique position to present to American audiences certain issues that affect the modern world at large but are not a part of the current discourse on anti-racism in the United States. Possessing a personal, direct connection to people who lived in the complicated reality and having been exposed to heated discussions on the topic on Chinese and American social media, I felt compelled to raise questions I still seek answers to: What does colonialism look like in our time? How does it function in today’s global political-economical agenda? We all know colonialism is ethically bad, but what do we make of ourselves when we’re part of its blueprint? I hope Sky of Darkness will inspire the viewers to ponder the state of the world beyond America and extend their perspective on problems usually viewed from a very Western-centric perspective.
What kind of person is Ma Luo? Could you describe this character?
He is an everyman. Despite his inherent benevolence, his naivety, weak-mindedness and lack of judgment make him easily fall into complex situations where he hardly has any control or agency. I would say he is a blank sheet of paper on which different forces can easily leave their marks of influence.
When did you realize playwriting would be a creative outlet for you?
I always say I am more of a theater artist than a playwright. What attracts me the most about theatrical art is its totality, where different disciplines must work precisely together to create meanings. Playwriting is one aspect that produces text as a creative element, which my training and interest in literature and history enables me more capacity and freedom to play with. And when talking about playwrighting, I see dramaturgy as my fundamental method to generate, gather and organize textual materials.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sky of Darkness by Siting Yang plays June 2-12 at Theaterlab in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
