The title character of Whitesnake is a unique character in Chinese literature and myth, at once a powerful, mythical creature (a snake spirit) gifted with magical healing powers, an enterprising businesswoman, a romantic lover, wife, mother, and a fierce, implacable warrior. Her exploits have been a staple in every genre of Chinese stage performance – including the Kun opera version that we have excerpted for this production as well as countless traditional and regional puppet and shadow theater styles. Nowadays, the story of her adventures is also told through comic books, cartoons, film and television.

Together with her sister, Bluesnake, Whitesnake chooses to take on a human form in order to progress spiritually. Soon after coming to the beautiful West Lake, she meets and falls in love with Xu Xien, a kind hearted, though somewhat naive, young herbalist of modest means and no family. They marry and open up an herbal pharmacy. But their idyllic romance is disrupted by a narrow-minded and doctrinaire Buddhist Monk named Fa Hai, who fervently believes that the intermarriage of an animal spirit with a human being constitutes an affront to the Cosmic Order. He does everything he can to force them apart. Only Whitesnake's repeated and vigorous opposition, assisted by Bluesnake’s formidable martial arts abilities, defeats his plans. She has a child by Xu Xien, a young boy who is destined to become a great scholar. But shortly after the boy’s first birthday the Monk, Fa Hai, finally manages to capture Whitesnake with a magical snare and imprison her beneath a huge pagoda.

CTW’s production, Kun/Shadow Whitesnake is a unique blending of two very different theatrical versions of this traditional story. The Kun opera portions of the program feature centuries-old arias, dance, pantomime and masterful martial arts, performed by our company of professional trained Chinese opera actors in exquisitely embroidered silk costumes and full stage makeup. They present some of the opera’s best-known arias and scenes, including “Stroll Near West Lake”, “Stealing the Heavenly Grass”, “At Gold Mountain Temple”, “The Battle in the Water”, and “By the Broken Bridge”.

The shadow portions feature over thirty antique leather shadow figures that were originally collected by Pauline Benton, in the 1920s and 1930s in Beijing. Her company, The Red Gate Players, performed with them from the late 1930s into the 1950s, after which they were retired and packed away in large steamer trunks. During the more than forty years they spent in storage, the leather figures deteriorated badly. They had to be carefully cleaned, refurbished and reinforced in order to make them performance capable for the first time in half a century.

Kun/Shadow Whitesnake is written and directed by Kuang-Yu Fong with design and additional puppet direction by Stephen Kaplin. Master Kun opera performer Yuhang Wen, the star of Lincoln Center's epic full length production of Peony Pavilion, stars in the role of Xu Xien, leading a cast of top Chinese opera performers. The Chinese Opera music is arranged and conducted by Baogang Liu, musical instructor from the Chinese Opera Academy in Beijing.