Turandot in Beijing, 1998: Dance of the Executioner

This is an extract from the documentary "Turandot Project" (1999?): the action (rehearsed) is from Act one of the planned 1998 performance "in the Forbidden City". With the news that the Prince of Persia is to be beheaded for wrong-guessing the oracle, a throng of Beijing townspeople gather before the palace to watch the ritual unfold. Wildly exceeding anything stipulated in the original scenario, Zhang and co. reinvent the executioner (Pin Pan Pon) as a terrifying red-clad midget prompted to twirl back and forth to inspect a shelf of manuals on (mainly) bladed weapons, one of which she will chose to complete the task (mercifully offstage).