"Fall in Love! Chekhov"," the first performance of the Mandarin Theater, Chekhov's many groups of characters happily shared the stage

"It's a funny, different Chekhov comedy." On April 14, the National Drama Theatre of China's first newly created play of 2021, "Love! Chekhov premiered at the Mandarin Theatre. The drama is translated by Tong Ning, directed by Cha Wenhao, adapted by Cha Wenhao and Liu Jinni, and starring Hou Yansong, Chang Yuhong, Jiang Jiaqi, Zhang Jie, Zhou Chuanjie, Xue Fei, She Nannan, etc. This romantic comedy, which made the audience burst into laughter many times, boldly and skillfully integrated Chekhov's many plays and novels into one, and used a contemporary perspective, a new narrative method, "witty, humorous, lively, and without lack of Chekhov temperament and depth" approach, to explore the eternal life mystery of love.

Reporter Fang Fei photographed

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Chekhov's many groups of characters happily shared the stage

Chekhov was an outstanding representative of the Russian realist literary genre. Cha Wenhao, who has studied drama directors and film and television directors, adopts the technique of "parallel cross-narrative", juxtaposing and integrating the three one-act plays of "Stupid Bear", "Marriage Proposal" and "Wedding" with many novels such as "Man in the Set", "Teasing", "Bride", "About Love", etc., and takes "Love is a Mystery" as the starting point, so that various groups of characters shine together, so that multiple emotions such as irony, absurdity, romance, and sadness are intertwined, creating an aesthetic mood that is both realistic and freehand, both traditional and contemporary on the stage.

Under this creative idea, three performance areas are set up on the stage at the same time, each area is independent and related, and the characters can shuttle through various spaces. The director uses a method similar to a film montage to cut, edit and quickly connect different stories, bringing the whole work a special texture that is both faithful to Chekhov's original work and new and innovative.

On this stage full of whimsy, the church bells, The Shostakov Round Dance, tetris and chess horse heads, and the "bear head" suddenly worn by the men in the play all have classic Russian symbolism. The corridor through which the wedding ceremony took place became a shelf carrying Chekhov's memories. The gyroscope of Fedocek's gift to Irina in "Three Sisters" appears on "The Wedding", and the wedding table in "The Wedding" instantly turns into a silver sleigh in "Teasing"; while the three girls in the three different stories of "The Bride", "Teasing" and "The Wedding" all magically have a common name... The most shocking thing is that the idiot men and women in the three stories appear on the stage of the wind whistling and the snow in the sky at the same time, shouting out the "enigmatic words" respectively, and also immersing the stage and the stage together in a strong impact.

The lead actor Hou Yansong plays multiple roles, sometimes a bystander reader, sometimes a father in the play, sometimes a feminine servant, sometimes an elderly general... Jump in and out, each with its own characteristics. Especially when interpreting Leunov's look back on the past, in the jump of time and space, he reminisced about the interaction and emotions he had with the young girl Nadya, and the long and affectionate monologue was deeply moving. Chang Yuhong and Zhou Chuanjie vividly played a pair of debtor men and women who were originally going to duel for life and death because of hatred and love, but finally fell in love; Jiang Jiaqi and Xue Fei exaggerated a pair of leftover men and women who obviously wanted to have a marriage contract but were inseparable because of various senseless arguments; Zhang Jie and Ying Yuchen played a newlywed couple who looked like they were in a trance at the wedding and finally chose different life paths. Nastasia, the mother-in-law played by She Nannan, vividly shows the ignorant and selfish side of the small citizens; the "set of people" Played by Wang Xihan, Belikov, vividly shows the rigidity, cowardice, evasion and fear of everything in his closed world. Their humorous, witty performances erupted into laughter.

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Cha-tetsu: My son is better than me, and I'm very happy

"Fall in Love! On the night of the premiere of "Chekhov", the audience expressed their recognition and love for this new work on the stage with warm laughter and applause. Tian Qinxin, president of the National Theatre of China, commented: "This is the first drama work of the National Theatre of China in 2021, and the multi-time, multi-angle, fast-cutting directing technique makes the stage look new. This premiere of Mandarin marks the beginning of a new era in the art of directing the National Drama Theatre. ”

Director Cha Wenhao's father, Director Cha Wenhao, director Cha Mingzhe, as well as famous screenwriter Li Baoqun, famous actors Feng Xianzhen and Han Tongsheng also came to watch the play. After watching the play, everyone was interested in "Love! Chekhov congratulated him on the success of the premiere and was also sincerely happy about Cha Wenhao's growth. Director Zhao Zhe, who has always been very strict and picky, also showed a happy smile on his face and told reporters: "Cha Wenhao's creation this time, I am very free. I haven't been back to Beijing recently and I'm directing a play. He's self-reliant and doing what he wants to do, and I think that's fine. I also feel comfortable that he can have his own independent thinking. ”

Cha-che confessed that he had also worried before watching the performance: "Before watching the play, what I was most worried about was that he mixed Chekhov's three plays with some other novels and poems, a total of about five or six things, afraid that the audience would have some obstacles when accepting it. But now, my worries are superfluous. In his own way, in parallel narratives, as well as the transitions and connections of jumps, as well as music, performances, lighting, including bells, and so on, he has brought together several stories, and each story is still clear. It can be said that it solves a big problem quite well, that is, the director's narrative problem on the stage. ”

"I think such a repertoire is also in line with the creative direction of 'adhering to world classics, Chinese originality, and experimental exploration' that the National Drama Theatre has always been adhering to." Because this play is both derived from Chekhov's classics and has a strong original adaptation, and it is very experimental in terms of text adaptation, directorial techniques, performance methods, and stage time and space processing changes, it is worth recognizing, so from this point of view, I think it is quite gratifying. Today, there are also many friends who come to see the play, including some very picky friends, who sincerely congratulate the success of this play and feel that they have seen the steady growth of the new forces of the National Drama Theatre. Everyone was very protective of Cha Wenhao, and said to me: 'My son is stronger than you!' Of course, he's already better than me. I am happy! ”

(Original title: Derived from the master classic and very independent original Mandarin 2021 first newly created drama "Love! Chekhov premiere)

Source: Beijing Evening News | Reporter Wang Run

Process Edit: U016

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