In Xanadu

Boasting exquisitely intricate shadow puppetry, In Xanadu is a unique theatre experience created by director Larry Reed and his gifted cast of performers, musicians, and behind-the-scenes craftspeople at ShadowLight Productions, a San Francisco-based shadow-theater company founded by Reed in 1972. Winner of the UNIMA-USA Citation for Excellence (puppetry's highest honor), In Xanadu combines Tibetan, Chinese, and Indonesian performance techniques with detailed shadow puppets to dramatize the eventful love story of Chinese emperor Khubilai Khan and his devoted wife Chabui. The characters are a combination of costumed human actors wearing cardboard shadow-puppet cutouts and all-cardboard characters manipulated by masterful puppeteers. The full range of shadow-casting techniques is employed with astonishing skill, ranging from magical shifts in scale to dazzling, impressionistic designs. Edited together from videotaped performances in 1993, 1994, and 1997, this DVD is obviously mastered from VHS, which means that the visual quality is hardly sterling. But as the action swings from domestic serenity and marital romance to supernatural warfare on an epic scale, In Xanadu remains engrossing, occasionally shifting from shadowy b&w to bold palettes of color. Seen by the live audience on a 30-by-15-foot rear-projection screen, the elaborately choreographed shadowplay here also frequently employs cinematic techniques including lap-dissolves, lighting effects, electronic and acoustic “foley” sound effects, and compositions that recall the classic films of Bergman and Kurosawa. While viewers unfamiliar with Asian theater techniques may find In Xanadu to be somewhat impenetrable—the behind-the-scenes/making-of featurette included as a bonus will help—this document of a highly specialized performance art form will still be appreciated by many. Recommended. [Note: also available in the ShadowLight puppetry series are: 7 Visions, Ambrosia of Immortality, Coyote's Journey, Mayadanawa, Shadow Master, and The Wild Party.] Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)