Forbidden City - Potrait of the Empress

Our company celebrates 45yrs this year and one of the celebration was to host the Gala premiere of a local production for our clients : Forbidden City - Potrait of the Empress, by the Singapore Repertory Theatre.
I was honoured to be able to get a pair of tickets (free of charge) to the performance. It was my first time to the Esplanade Theatre too.

It was fun to see fellow colleagues all dressed up for the occassion. It was fun to 'kaypo' who are their partners, how they looked like, etc. =)

It tells the story of Empress Cixi, commonly known as the Dragon Lady during her reign. She was also known to be ruthless, terrorizing her subjects and rumoured to have murdered her own son. She invited Kate Carl to paint her potrait and that was where Kate got the chance to peek into Empress Cixi's life story.

However, I saw the other sides of Empress Cixi, known as Yenehara in her younger days as a concubine. I see her love for the emperor, her love for her son and finally her determination keep her life. With her love for the emperor, she make sure the Emporer chose her among all the other concubines. With the love for her son, she make sure the Emperor name him as heir before he dies. With the determination to keep her life after her son's death, she ruled the country as Empress by naming his nephew as the next emporer.

I marvelled at how skillfully they change the scenes and shift their props till some scenes even adopt a 3D effect. I didn't know that the stage is so big and deep inside but this definitely make the whole stage come alive !