The dramas "Niu Tianci" and "Erma", adapted from Lao She's works, will be staged at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center and the Daning Theater at the end of the year. Among them, "Niu Tianci" choreographed and directed by the well-known dramatist Fang Xu is his sixth adaptation of Lao She's works, and it is also the second time that the "all-male class" lineup has been launched after "Erma"; and "Erma", directed by Li Ye, a first-class actor of the National Drama Theatre, is a re-arrangement version of Fang Xu's version of "Erma".
Two Lao She works have successively come to the Shencheng stage, coupled with the dramas such as "Goodbye Huiyin" and "Misunderstanding" adapted from Camus's works, which will be staged in the Daning Theater's "The Power of Ning Drama" series of performances, at the end of 2021, shanghai audiences will witness the encounter between drama and literature.
There are many masterpieces in Lao She's life, and works such as "Four Generations Together" and "Camel Xiangzi" have been adapted many times and put on the stage of drama. In 1934, Lao She wrote a long novel "The Legend of Niu Tianci" in between teaching in Jinan, Shandong, which is one of the representative works of his increasingly mature style. The novel tells the story of a child's growth, spanning from the child's birth to the age of 20. A newborn baby was abandoned on the side of the road and adopted by a cattle family that had no heirs, taking the name "Heavenly Gift". This is a work dedicated to the issue of education by Lao She, who once had such a metaphor: "Tianqi is sandwiched between an iron plate and a piece of tofu to survive, the iron plate is the old lady of the cow, everything pays attention to the official style and rules; tofu is the old man of the cow, everything is good to discuss, can be mixed." ”
"Everyone is a gift, and the confusion and troubles encountered by children in the process of growing up will not change essentially because of the different times." I believe that in this story, everyone can see their own shadow. In the view of the adaptor Fang Xu, this novel still has extraordinary practical significance today.
Fang Xu, who grew up in the courtyard, is a "Lao She professional household" on the stage in recent years, and "Niu Tianqi" is the sixth time he has been associated with Lao She's works since "My Life", "Cat City", "Erma" and other works. Under the premise of retaining the traditional Beijing flavor temperament, Fang Xu's adaptation of Lao She drama has been innovative from creative intention to aesthetic attitude. On the stage of "Niu Tianci", the "all-male class" actors led by Ren Yuebin will interpret the characters of different ages, identities and genders in 3 hours, old lady Niu, Ji Mama, Liu Mama and a number of concubines and daughters-in-law all rely on reverse strings, and the unique style presented by male actors interpreting female characters has become a part of the freehand temperament of the play.
In addition to the "all-male class" anti-string, Niu Tianci's multiple perspectives and "puppet unity" are also the innovations of this work. In "Niu Tianci", Fang Xu first tried the performance method of "puppet combination", constructing a dual performance space of the character's external image and inner feelings, and using a novel role distribution method - different sizes of dolls show the growth process of Niu Tianci from infant to child, teenager to youth, and different dolls represent different stages of life, breaking through the boundaries of drama realism.
"Niu Tianci" will accompany the Shanghai audience on December 31 and January 1 at the Dongyi Stage for the "New Year's Eve", before that, on December 12, the re-typeset version of "Erma" will usher in the Shanghai premiere at the Daning Theater.
"Two Horses" is a novel written by Lao She in The United Kingdom in 1929. In the story, a Chinese father and son, an old horse and a pony, travel to London, England, and develop feelings for two British women, the landlord Mrs. Wendu and her daughter. Lao She uses humorous ink to depict the situation of the old horse and the pony in London, as well as the ridiculous love story between the "second horse" and the mother and daughter of Wendu.
Li Ye, a screenwriter and young director who serves as the director of the remake of "Erma", admits that adapting classics is a process of stress and happiness. After a large number of desk work, he clarified the creative goal of digging deep into the content of the text and exploring the life behind it.
In the re-typeset version of "Two Horses", the old Beijing "Old Horse" with "Don't Mention Money, Tacky" as the mantra is played by Ning Wentong. As an actor for more than 30 years, through the shaping of Ji Wang in "Langya List", Lao Yan in "Ode to Joy", Deputy Director Bai in "I Am Yu Huanshui" and many other roles, Ning Wentong has become an old acquaintance of the audience on the screen and stage. In "Two Horses", the old horse he portrays faces the situation of "Beijingers in London", cherishes face in embarrassment, adheres to the "life philosophy" of "cannot be tacky", and pursues hard-won love, while Mrs. Wendu is played by Cui Yi, a young actor of the National Drama Theatre.
In the series of performances of "The Power of Ning Opera" at Daning Theatre, the drama "Misunderstanding", which met with Shanghai audiences on December 24 and 25, was directed by director Yang Ting and starred li Mao, a specially invited film and television actor and singer. The new crown epidemic has allowed many readers to relive Camus's classic work "Plague", and Yang Ting, who directed "The Outsider" and read the two works of "Meet Camus", also once again used the stage to dialogue with Camus, and put "Misunderstanding" born out of "Outsider" on the stage.
The story of "Misunderstanding" comes from an old newspaper in "The Outsider", and the protagonist, Mussol, sees a news report in the old newspaper in prison: a man who has been away from home for 25 years has made a fortune and hides his name to bring surprises to his family, living in an inn owned by his mother and sister, and does not want to be killed by two people who covet money. This sad and absurd and French philosophical fable attracted Yang Ting, "The mother, daughter, son, and wife in the play are a group of characters who have been pushed to the limit, and the excitement of the play is closely related to the complex personalities of these characters." Through this story, I hope that the audience can feel that no matter how the world changes, there must be a spirit to face it and the strength to fight against it. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Shi Chenlu
Source: Author: Shi Chenlu