Produced and performed by the National Drama Theatre, the drama "Love! Chekhov" as a 160-year-old birthday gift for the "father of drama" Chekhov, although a year late, is still full of sincerity, and four national first-class actors join forces to interpret the love of parallel time and space.
Chekhov was an outstanding representative of the Russian realist literary genre at the end of the nineteenth century, and drama was a dazzling jewel in his creative achievements. "Fall in Love! "Chekhov" mainly selects his three one-act comedies "Stupid Bear", "Marriage Proposal" and "Wedding", and integrates Chekhov's "Man in the Set", "Teasing", "The Bride", "About Love" and other novels, constructing classic stories with contemporary perspectives and new narrative methods, and exploring the eternal life puzzle of love.
"Stupid Bear" humorously portrays a pair of men and women facing a sudden tornado of love, from panic and dodging to brave acceptance; "Marriage Proposal" shows the ironic quarrel and love between the elderly leftover man who came to propose and the older leftover woman who was proposed; "The Wedding" is a story that takes place at a wedding banquet of a middle-class family in Russia, and due to the dislocation of the characters' identities, it triggers a series of absurd chain reactions, satirizing the "profitable" concept of marriage and love. The drama translates Tong Ning, director Cha Wenhao, adapts screenwriters Cha Wenhao and Liu Jinni, and stars Hou Yansong, Chang Yuhong, Jiang Jiaqi, Zhang Jie, Zhou Chuanjie, Xue Fei, She Nannan, etc.
Tian Qinxin, dean of Mandarin, said, "Fall in Love! "Chekhov" was launched last year on the 160th anniversary of the birth of Chekhov, the "father of modern drama", which was introduced to the audience as the first newly created play in 2021, which is a new interpretation of Chekhov on the Chinese drama stage and a sincere tribute to Chekhov, the "great man of eternal life" by Chinese language artists. The choice of Chekhov plays embodies the creative concept of "Chinese originality, world classic, experimental exploration" of the National Drama Theatre, so that the world classic has more audiences.
Tian Qinxin
Tian Qinxin stressed that the National Drama Theatre has an indissoluble relationship with Russian and Soviet drama and Chekhov. In 1954, Sun Weishi, the first red theater expert trained by our party and returning from the Soviet Union, directed one of Chekhov's masterpieces, "Uncle Vanya"; in 2004, the National Drama Theatre successfully held the first "International Drama Season - Chekhov Forever", and Chekhov's debut work "Platonov" debuted on the Chinese stage for the first time. As Chekhov wrote in his novel The Uninteresting Story, "I hope that after a hundred years of death, I can wake up from the grave, at least with one eye, to see the future world, to see what science has developed..." Chekhov's vision of a better future will continue to influence people's progress.
Cha Wenhao
Director and screenwriter Cha Wenhao's father is the famous director Cha Wenhao, who is well versed in Russian theater, in his opinion, "Chekhov is the most difficult playwright to challenge, and the first time I challenged chekhov in the grand theater, I felt pressure." After reading a large number of Chekhov plays and novels, I have formed the concept of parallel universe in my mind, and we will use the technique of parallel cross-narrative to let various very characteristic characters intersperse and integrate in the plot to form a love parallel time and space in chekhov's literary world. In the end, multiple groups of characters arc each other, creating a gorgeous aurora of love on the stage. He also introduced: "Compared with the previous performances based on restoration and realism, this time it will be a small subversion, so that the audience can experience a Chekhov who is wise and humorous, optimistic and warm in the background of sadness and joy." There is both a legacy of Chekhov's soul and a contemporary expression. ”
Hou Yansong
Chang Yuhong
In the play, the plum blossom award winner Hou Yansong plays multiple roles, in addition, Chang Yuhong plays Popova, Jiang Jiaqi plays Nadalia, Zhang Jie plays the groom Aplompov, Zhou Chuanjie plays Smirnov, Xue Fei plays Lomov, and She Nannan plays Nastasia, who will reveal the plight of mankind in Chekhov's trivial daily life.
April 14-18, "Love! Chekhov will open its first round of performances at the National Theatre Theatre.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Guo Jia
Photo / Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wang Xiaoxi
Editor/Cui Wei