Reporter | Chen Jiajing Lin Ziren
Edit | Lin Zi people
<h3>[Shanghai].</h3>
<h3>Comedy "Chincha No Minister"</h3>
Performance time: April 8 - April 18
Venue: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center
"Chincha No Minister" is adapted from Gogol's famous work "Chincha Minister". The original book tells the story of the young and bohemian Khlesdakov passing through a small town hotel on his way back from St. Petersburg to his hometown, and is mistakenly recognized by local officials as a Chincha minister who has come to "micro-serve private visits", and makes many jokes in the process of pretending to be a minister. The work, which uses a poignant satire to debunk all kinds of official chaos, was called "the most complete course of pathological anatomy for officials" by Herzen.
Since its premiere in April 2014, Chincha No Minister has attracted numerous buzz. After localization, the story of "The Minister of Chincha" was moved to Kinmen, Fujian during the Republic of China: senior Kuomintang agents were secretly conducting an investigation into the "anti-corruption" military expenditure, but at this time, there happened to be two masters and servants from Nanjing, and the seemingly official-style master even carried with him the medals handed down from his ancestors and issued by the Nanjing government in the early years. The arrival of this "suspected Chincha Minister" disrupted the local official life in Kinmen... Director Shao Zehui said, "This play outlines an absurd but realistic portrait of official corruption, more like the Republic of China's version of "OfficialDom Appearance". In that atmosphere, cleverly telling a well-known story, while having fun, also opens the door to a little thought. ”
<h3>The musical "Smoke"</h3>
Performance time: April 8 - May 9
Venue: FANCL Art Center (Yihai Theater, Small Theater)
The musical "Smoke" was inspired by the Korean "ghost talent" poet Lee Box's serial work "Wu Guan Tu" No. 15, which is a sensual interpretation of the poet's life and poetry. Lee Box (real name Kim Hae-ching) was born in Seoul in 1910 and died in Tokyo in 1937. Like many other geniuses ahead of his time, Lee's achievements were not recognized during his lifetime, his writings were full of exploration and imagination of the world of consciousness, and his poems were whimsical but were regarded as nonsense by those of his time. In 2016, the original "Smoke" premiered in South Korea with rave reviews.
"Smoke" disassembles the suitcase into three "personalities" to show the poet's extraordinary life: "super" obsessed with writing but unable to get secular understanding, the teenager "hai" is naïve and flawless, yearning for the sea and loves to paint, and "red" is seriously ill. In order to see the real sea, the poor "Sea" decides to kidnap "Red" with "Chao" in exchange for ransom, but "Chao" who participates in the kidnapping plan actually has other plans...
<h3>Musical "Uncle Long Legs"</h3>
Performance period: April 9 - April 23
Venue: Orange Theater, Center for Contemporary Art
The musical "Uncle Long Legs" is back sweetly! After a year, the Chinese version of the musical "Uncle Long Legs" returned to the small theater after the upgrading of the stage and the cast, allowing the audience to see the delicate love written by Jane Webster a hundred years ago. The original musical Douban scored 9.2 points, which is the transformation of John Newport Caird, the director of the original musical "Les Misérables". This small theater musical for two was well received on Outer Broadway. Its Chinese version has toured 153 times in 10 cities nationwide in the past three years, and has created a "box office miracle" for small and medium-sized theater musicals.
"Uncle Long Legs" is based on the novel of the same name, about Jorosha, a girl who grew up in an orphanage, gets a financial support from a mysterious man to go to college, the only condition is to write a letter to the sponsor every month. Jorosha began her college life and wrote regular letters to the "long-legged uncle", and the words overflowed with the girl's enthusiasm, cheerfulness and rapid growth. Meanwhile, Jorosha meets her roommate Julia's "young" uncle, Jervis, and the two with the same interests and values quickly become acquainted. Between "Uncle Long Legs" and Jervis, a secret is being revealed to Jorosha...
<h3>Keigo Higashino's suspense drama "New Contestant"</h3>
Performance period: April 16 - April 18
Venue: People's Grand Stage
"New Samurai" is the eighth installment of Keigo Higashino's "Kyoichiro Kaga series". The story is about a newly moved solitary woman who was brutally strangled and killed in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo, and Kyoichiro Kaga, a criminal police officer who had just been transferred to the police station here, began to investigate. In this story, the protagonist relies on a keen insight into the world to solve the case, and the truth is hidden in the trivialities of life and people's sorrows and joys. According to a Douban netizen, "It is not so much a suspense drama as a healing drama." ”
<h3>[Beijing].</h3>
<h3>Drama "Fall in Love! Chekhov"</h3>
Show dates: April 14 - April 18
Venue: National Theatre of China
To commemorate the 160th anniversary of the birth of Chekhov, the "father of modern theater", "Love! "Chekhov" was launched last year and is a new interpretation of Chekhov on the Chinese drama stage. The play mainly selects his three one-act comedies "Stupid Bear", "Marriage Proposal" and "Wedding", and integrates many novels such as "The Man in the Set", "Teasing", "The Bride", "About Love" and so on, constructing a classic story from a contemporary perspective and exploring the eternal life puzzle of love.
The main creative team said that the National Drama Theatre of China has an indissoluble relationship with Russian and Soviet drama and Chekhov. As early as the 1950s, one of Chekhov's masterpieces, "Uncle Vanya", was staged here. Chekhov wrote around the 1890s, the "Silver Age" when Russia entered the ranks of world powers. Some people describe that period as follows: "The most extreme materialist era is also the era when the ideals are most strongly demanded spiritually." Chekhov's works are closely related to the social environment of the time, and many of them have deep insight into the weaknesses of human nature, and also reveal the various drawbacks that hinder people's access to a happy life.
<h3>Ding Yiteng directed the work "Wound Disappears in the Vast Night"</h3>
Performance time: April 17 - April 18
Venue: Damai Chao Theatre
This is the first time that "The Wound Disappears in the Vast Night" has appeared on the Beijing stage. The play is based on Freud's psychoanalytic concept of "the analysis of dreams" and is based on the first science fiction novel in human history, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The protagonist of the story, Vido, is violated by her stepfather, but her mother only advises her to tolerate it. She placed her hopes in her boyfriend, but an accident took her boyfriend's life. Vido is devastated, and she fantasizes about her boyfriend coming back from the dead and falling into a strange dream. In the dream, a monster resembling a boyfriend appears, bloodthirsty and brutal. With the reversal of the dream, Vido's unspeakable pain is also revealed layer by layer...
The director of the play, Ding Yiteng, is known as "the leading figure of the new generation of young theater directors in China today". His works are absurd and explosive, and he is good at blending the essence of traditional and contemporary, Western and Eastern art across time and space. His masterpieces "Dou E", "Drunken Dream Poetry Fairy" and "Wounds Disappear into the Vast Night" were defined by Western drama master Eugenio Barba as a trilogy of "The Tragedy of a Silly Boy".
<h3>Drum Tower West Theater's 7th Anniversary Drama "Inspector Visits"</h3>
Show dates: April 21 - May 9
Venue: Drum Tower West Theater
"The Inspector's Visit" is a novel by the British playwright J. Scott. B. Priestley's most famous theatrical work and one of the most classic English plays of the mid-twentieth century, along with The Mousetrap and The Woman in Black, is known as one of london's three must-see plays in the West End. The "Inspector Visit" was directed by Zhang Yang, the representative of the "sixth generation director" of Chinese films who returned to the drama stage, which made many audiences look forward to it.
Set in the northern British industrial city of Brunley, the Burling family, a happy middle-class family, was immersed in the warm atmosphere of an engagement night, but was interrupted by a visiting inspector, Gul. Gul came to investigate the suicide of a young female worker, and under his pressure, the truth of the woman's death gradually surfaced.
<h3>Peking Opera "Young Ma Lianliang"</h3>
Show: April 14
Venue: Chang'an Grand Theatre
This is one of the first round of exhibition and performance works of the Beijing Opera House "Series of Activities to Commemorate the 120th Anniversary of the Birth of Peking Opera Master Mr. Ma Lianliang". In the history of Peking Opera for more than 200 years, famous plays have emerged in an endless stream, and Ma Lianliang and his Ma Pai repertoire are outstanding, which is inseparable from the cultivation he received in xilian chengke class in his early years. "Young Ma Lianliang" is from the beginning of Ma Lianliang's entry into the department, focusing on the specific time period of the teenager.
At the beginning of learning drama, Ma Lianliang was disliked by his teacher because of his thin foundation, poor conditions, and introverted temperament, and Mr. Guo, who hated iron and steel, once wanted to dismiss him. At that time, the famous Peking Opera master Jia Honglin saw the pearls and fell in love with Ma Lianliang. Just as the so-called "one minute on stage, ten years offstage", Ma Lianliang's process of learning drama and the hardships of practicing exercises have been fully demonstrated in the play, and the audience has also felt the deep feelings between him and several good teachers.