A stage photo of Heisenberg Photo provided to Hangzhoufeel
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By Wu Jing
Joseph Graves is a king on stage -- quite literally, as he has played many characters with bold personalities, ranging from Shakespeare’s King Lear to the Greek demigod Achilles. However, at any social gathering, he says he’d gladly drift away and hide in a corner -- he’s a real introvert. He claims, “In normal everyday communication, I’m like a coward. I’d run away from that sort of thing.” Who is this man who can switch between an introvert in real life to an extrovert on stage?
Joseph is a theater actor, director, and playwright from the US. Having lived in China for the past 22 years, he has dedicated his life to teaching and performing theater in China. Just as in his most renowned one-man show Revel’s World of Shakespeare, where he plays one man with many parts, in real life, the 69-year-old actor also has multiple identities. Some people know him as a director, a playwright, and an actor; others know him as a teacher at Peking University -- he is the artistic director of PKU’s Institute of World Theater and Film. He recalled his teaching experiences at PKU and said jokingly, “I probably have many Chinese moms and dads who hate me because I’ve introduced their son or daughter to the theater, and they’ve decided they no longer want to become a lawyer or a doctor.” For most people, the world of performing arts is a lotus flower in full bloom during the subtle chillness of autumn by West Lake -- a sight for sore eyes, but always far out of reach. Many of his students have gone on to become very successful individuals in the world of theater, inspiring a new generation of artists and audiences across China.
This August, along with renowned Chinese theater actress, director, and producer Wei Yihuan, Graves will be performing their latest work Heisenberg in Tianmei Theater, Hangzhou, on the 2nd and 3rd of next month. Heisenberg, scripted by Simon Stephens, one of the UK’s most prolific and celebrated playwrights and a Tony Award winner, is on one level, just six simple scenes exploring how a 75-year-old British man and a 38-year-old Chinese woman fall in love with each other. But on another level, the play pushes the boundaries of structure and dynamics in storytelling, while simultaneously suggesting the limitlessness of love’s boundless expressions. The play explores, in a unique fashion, the often mercurial and quantum-like confusions of human relationships as people, all of us, try in one way or another to find and express love. Of course, the title Heisenberg makes the play sound as if it might be a lesson in quantum physics, but hardcore science is kept to a minimum in the piece.
Besides being an actor on stage, Graves also enjoys writing plays. In fact, he wrote a film script about Zhu Shenghao, the late translator whose famous works are the Chinese translations of Shakespeare. Joseph recalls he got to know about the late translator through his students at PKU, and he easily became fascinated after learning more about Zhu Shenghao, even going on to stay for a few weeks with Zhu’s son, who now lives in Jiaxing. “His son told me Zhu Shenghao believed that China, as a country, would perish without a Shakespeare translation. He was crazy about Shakespeare in a way that I completely identify with.” As he got to learn more about Zhu Shenghao, particularly through the time spent with his son, Zhu became a hero in Joseph’s heart. “I want to produce a film about him, and I want to tell his story not just to Chinese people. I think it will resonate with lots of people around the world because of what a tremendous talent he was.”
As an actor and director with great versatility, Graves has worked on countless genres of theater and is always keen on experimenting with new forms, such as combining Eastern and Western operas, creating a dozen of his own original creations. However, as he was introduced to Shakespeare when he was 6, the shadow of Shakespeare lives within every crevice of his life -- even outside the theater halls. He talked about a morning routine of his, which is getting up very early in the morning and going for a meditational walk, where he recites hundreds of Shakespeare monologues. “I’ve worked on all of Shakespeare’s plays, some of them I’ve done many times, so my ridiculous mind is just full of them.” These walks offer him a great sense of comfort, and very often, he discovers new ways to express the words and messages behind these monologues.
Theater has been deeply embedded in his heart, and he “feels at home and at peace” on stage. With his upcoming play Heisenberg coming to Hangzhou, audiences will have a chance to admire his outstanding talent and feast their eyes on the extravagant beauty that art and humanity have to offer. “The audiences in Hangzhou, both young and old, are some of those I’ve met that are most interested in theater than in any other city I’ve performed in within China, so I’m very much looking forward to coming back next month.”