The Peasant Prince: boy who reached for the stars

Sandie Eldridge and Tim McGarry bring Li Cunxin’s story to the stage with deceptive economy.

The Peasant Prince - Jonathan Chan John Gomez Goodway 1 Photo Heidrun Lohr.jpg

In Monkey Baa’s unerring hands a worn old blanket summons a family home with few material goods but rich in love. Rolled up it is a cooking bowl, unfurled it’s a bath towel, and wrapped about an embraced child it is a potent image of a mother’s care.

In just a few minutes the wordless, elegant scene gets to the heart of The Peasant Prince. This boy knows what it is like to have nothing and everything. We understand why he will never forget the source of his strength.

As his 2003 memoir Mao’s Last Dancer relates, former dancer and now ballet company director Li Cunxin was 10 when an emissary from Madame Mao came to his impoverished village in Shandong province looking for promising children to attend the Beijing Dance Academy.

Li was overlooked until a teacher called the man back and suggested the boy be taken. Having been offered this miraculous way out, which must have seemed as alien as space travel, Li could not fail his family. As one of his brothers told him when Li came home for a rare visit, he must tell his mother and father only good things. The sixth of his parents’ seven children had to find the courage, focus and discipline to make the most of his opportunity.

Monkey Baa writers Eva Di Cesare, Sandie Eldridge and Tim McGarry are dab hands at adapting books for young audiences and bring Li’s story to the stage with deceptive economy. The play moves swiftly, with David Bergman’s video designs effortlessly and vividly summoning a village schoolroom, a busy city, a rural scene, a flight to the US.

John Gomez Goodway is bright-eyed Li and, under McGarry’s lucid direction, Jonathan Chan, Jenevieve Chang and Edric Hong play everyone else with admirable clarity.

Momentum falters a little once the action moves to Houston, where Li defected. The happy ballet rehearsal, which is overlong, and the Chinese attempt to send Li home don’t have the same crystalline definition as the rest of this otherwise fine dramatisation.

There is no shying away from the challenges Li faced as a child and the resilience he had to develop; they’re valuable things for children to consider. It’s also an inspirational fable, like one Li loves as a child, about aspiration and achievement. In other words, perfect for its young audience.

The Peasant Prince. Monkey Baa Theatre Company, LendLease Darling Quarter Theatre, Sydney, April 11. Tickets: $29. Bookings: [phone]. Duration: 1hr, no interval. Until April 20, followed by an Australian tour to 37 cities.