Tracking the Rise and Fall of ‘Madame Mao’

“She’s quite a character,” said actress Kim Miyori, summing up Jiang Qing--the widow of China’s Chairman Mao Tse Tung). Miyori will portray her in Henry Ong’s one-woman one-act, “Madame Mao’s Memories,” opening Friday at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood.

“I had been really ignorant of the Cultural Revolution--and Chinese history in general,” noted Miyori (Dr. Wendy Armstrong on “St. Elsewhere,” Yoko Ono in the TV bio “John and Yoko”). “It’s not something we study a lot in school. But I spent a couple of months in Hong Kong last summer, and I was there during the student demonstrations (in China). It was a very exciting time--the closest feeling I remember to the (political activism of the) ‘60s, but much more intense.”

While she was overseas, the actress began doing research on Madame Mao. “I learned a lot about her,” she said. “It was frightening the amount of power and influence she seemed to wield. Even though Mao was the public leader, she and the Gang of Four were the real leaders. They were responsible for 34,000 deaths, 74,000 people imprisoned, hundreds of thousands persecuted. Basically, everyone who got in their way--personally or politically--they got rid of.”

Madame Mao’s power came to an end soon after Chairman Mao’s death in 1976; she was tried for conspiracy, found guilty and sentenced to death. Although the death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, not much information is available about Madame Mao today. The show, which is set in a jail cell, traces back recollections to her childhood and adolescence, and her training at the experimental arts academy.

“The story is that she wasn’t much of an actress,” Miyori said. “Of course, she claims she was the toast of Hong Kong. Some of this is from her point of view, some from others’ point of view. Many critics have described her as a twisted, angry, bitter woman on a huge ego trip. But China has always had a tumultuous history--and the Communists were trying to reform the country. So no, I’m not playing her as evil. We all feel justified in our actions. It’s just a matter of finding that justification for her.”

Another play about Jiang Qing, “The Chairman’s Wife” by Wakako Yamauchi (“And the Soul Shall Dance”), will open at East West Players on Jan. 17.

THEATER FILE: Inner City Cultural Center’s Act 2: Short Play Competition--numbering 100-plus submissions--begins Monday, with “Autumn Heat” (four award-winning pieces, presented last year in the short play competition) bowing on Thursday. Included in the program are Ernie Fann’s “Evanna,” Luis Alfaro’s “True Stories From the Corner of Pico and Union,” Lenai Chapman’s “Home Run” and J. D. Hall’s “G.E.”

The Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe returns to Los Angeles this week with “Seeing Double.” Contributors to the West Bank-set musical farce include Israeli playwright Sinai Peter, Palestinian-American writer Emily Shihadeh and the troupe’s Joan Holden, Bruce Barthol and Randy Craig. Daniel Chumley directs the production, playing three performances only (Thursday through Saturday) at USC’s Bing Theatre.

Also at USC: the debut of Second City’s new West Coast touring company. Following Monday night warm-ups at the group’s home base in Santa Monica, the troupe takes to the road Oct. 18 with an appearance at USC’s Student Commons. Director Will Aldis oversees the 5-month-old company; cast members are Andy Dick, Jesse Douglas, Linda White, Christopher Bert, Mike DeCarlo, Megan Cavanaugh, Teresa Ganzel, Joseph Plewa and Brad Sherwood--all graduates from Second City’s Santa Monica workshop program.

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: Alan Ayckbourn’s new backstage comedy, “A Chorus of Disapproval,” opened at South Coast Repertory--to a chorus of mixed responses.

Said Dan Sullivan in The Times: “David Emmes’ SCR cast makes it a wonderfully entertaining evening. . . . Whether any of this is from Ayckbourn’s diary one doesn’t know, but it feels observed, and the performances are equally observant.”

The Daily News’ Daryl H. Miller found a “competent though not always compelling staging. (It) gets off to a slow start, with the first act lasting 1 1/2 hours. The action could easily be pared down, which would speed things along and keep hold of the audience’s attention.”

From Charles Marowitz in the Herald Examiner: “To find Ayckbourn amusing, one has to find the share-index of the Wall Street Journal amusing. To find Ayckbourn edifying or stimulating, one has to find a promotional brochure on underarm deodorants as enriching as the ‘Iliad’ or the ‘Odyssey.’ ”

Noted the San Diego Union’s Welton Jones: “Theater insiders will find themselves frequently amused (and appalled) by scenes such as the nightmare technical rehearsal, the chaotic audition. . . . But none of this is unique and, strangely, none as much fun as one would expect.”

From Thomas O’Connor in the Orange County Register: “We laugh--rather hard, in spots--at the follies of people who see and hear only what they wish to perceive. But we never get caught up in the accelerating rhythms of farce, never lose track of where we are in the comic scheme.”