A very very small opera stage

I was reading Joey's blog. She is an opera fan. One of the posts is about the smallest opera stage she has ever seen.

I reproduce her post here. I think she won't mind. You can imagine how small it was.

The smallest stage

Recently I saw a Cantonese Opera in Seremban (a town in the southern part of Malaysia) & I really pity the performers. The stage is so small that all the costumes boxes have to be relocated to another place nearby. All the head gears and props have to go below the stage and to the extend 2 performers have to be located under the stage! There was only one roll of makeup boxes for the performers (6 numbers only) and one "ironing" table for common use. The lead actor makeup box was line up beside Wah Kong Sifu and the troupe owner's makeup box was pratically blocking the side entrance. The performers were bumping at each other in common corridor & dressing area especially when they were doing the 6 Generals. The 3 percussionist were practically knocking at each other if they were to do a bigger movement! That was only the back stage.

At the front stage, the 6 generals were all cramp up in to a "concave" line instead of the normal "straight" line and the chariots have to be very careful otherwise they will bump into the 2 generals standing in front or the 2 ministers sitting behind.

During the performance of Pak Loong Quan - both the leading actor and actress have to be extra careful otherwise they hit the junior performers standing as guards (in the end they quick enough to go backstage). During the scene where the 2 armies met, the stage is so full that they can hardly move (or maybe just 2 to 3 steps) and they will bump to each other (it just 3 performers from each side).

This is the smallest stage I've seen so far and pity the performers as they have another 10 days to go!