24-Aug-2023
Two days ago, I talked about the accidental way in which we found out about the Ah Ma Hu Temple parade.
Via a similarly random process, we became aware of the Chinese Opera that was being staged as part of the celebrations.
A very nice man approached us on the waterfront this morning: "Hello," he says, "I saw you taking photos at the procession on Tuesday!" (This is by no means an untypical Kuching experience. People often spot us in various locations, and stop us later to talk about it.)
Anyway, we swapped contact details, and he told us about the opera. "Lots of photo opportunities," he said, "You'll love it. Best to turn up about 7 o'clock. Then you can see the actors doing their make-up."
And we did... We're slightly shy photographers, and there were already a few camera enthusiasts milling around. So we took a few shots of the preparations, trying not to get in the way, and then went off for a cup of tea.
We were back at 8 o'clock, when the performance was due to start.
Darkness has fallen, and the stage is lit...
Waiting in the wings
The temple backdrop
The hazards of having a road separating the players from the audience... Luckily, it's not a busy thoroughfare
We started with a kind of prologue:
And then we were into the main tale. Don't ask me for any details about the story, because I have no idea whatsoever. We didn't even pick up enough clues to look it up on the internet later.
But I'm pretty confident the troupe was the Yi Sing Fukien Dramatic Association. And according to that article, they're used to small audiences, which is good, because it was indeed a small audience...
We maxed out at 20 spectators. By the end (ie, after almost 2.5 hours), we were down to just eight
Even knowing absolutely nothing about what was going on, it was a highly entertaining spectacle. There's plenty of colour and movement; all the gestures are big and bold; nothing -- NOTHING -- is understated.
It's also interesting to observe the rest of the audience, of course. Initially, the older ladies were a bit distracted. But it wasn't long before they were drawn in.
This lady got lots of laughs, and inspired no small amount of backchat
There's also plenty of detail to observe:
Love the slippers...
There was always something going on with these chairs...
Part of the music team
Now we're heading to the denouement (whatever that was):
Drawing to a climax
Despite zero understanding of what was going on, we'd very much enjoyed our evening. Once again, a few centuries of culture had played out in front of us. It would be sad to see a day when it's no longer there.