Actor Pan Hong reappeared on the stage after 17 years The second season of the Shanghainese stage drama "Blossoms" debuted in Shencheng

The second season of "Blossoms" continues the unfinished personal affairs, love affairs and city affairs of the first season, describing how the three brothers went from "breaking off their friendship to reuniting" to string together the complicated stories of the new season. Draft: Li Jie

■ Reporter Tong Weijing

"Red dust rolling infatuation, deep love, gathering and dispersing sometimes; leaving half awake and half drunk, at least in the dream there are you following..." Ye Qianwen's classic song of "Dashing Away" reverberated at the end of the second season of the all-Shanghainese stage play "Blossoms", adding the aftersound of the past and the flow of the seasons to the people in the play.

As the spiritual history of Shanghai citizens and the history of Shanghai's growth, Mao Dun's literary award-winning work "Blossoms" has moved people more than novels. In the 4 years since the birth of the first season of the stage drama "Flowers", it has performed 56 times, creating a unique stage aesthetic of "Blossom Body". As the central part of the "Blossom Trilogy", the second season is an important piece of the puzzle that inherits the past and the future, focusing on the spirit of Shanghai, dedicated to the people who are still struggling to move forward despite the wind and rain, and to those who seem meaningless but will eventually shine in the picture of life. One of the highlights of the play is the joining of performance artist Pan Hong, who has appeared on the stage after 17 years after the 2004 star version of "Thunderstorm", and the "Teacher Li" played by her has only appeared for 20 minutes, but has contributed a delicate and precise and relaxed performance.

Create a Shanghainese who "has a sense of bone and tenacity"

As a deep soil of literary inspiration, there is a special connection between novelists and cities. Writer Jin Yucheng said that the great changes that Shanghai experiences every day are implemented in the world of ordinary citizens, and the subtle changes in the style of life bit by bit and the twinkling of stars form a dazzling big city.

The 350,000-word "Blossoms" depicts the mood of the city and sets the tone for the stage play with the scenes of life like flowing water, the map-style writing of walking the streets and alleys, and the group portraits of flying flowers and butterflies, which paint the mood of the city and set the tone for the stage play - this will be a "stage series" spanning three seasons, independent of each other and connected to each other.

The first season crosses the two timelines in the 1960s and 1990s, and narrates the three brothers in the original book, Ah Bao, Hu Sheng and Xiao Mao, from "acquaintance to renunciation". The second season continues the unfinished personal, love affairs and city affairs of the first season, describing how the three brothers went from "breaking off to reuniting" to string together the complicated stories of the new season. More than a dozen new characters "Flying Flowers Fluttering Butterflies" appeared - Tao Tao, Mei Rui, Xiaoqin, Chun Xiang, Xue Zhi, Fang Mei, Teacher Li, Pan Jing, Ah Bao's father and so on appeared one after another.

Pan Hong starred in "Teacher Li", which surprised the audience. On stage, she has silver hair and wears a gray sweater, because the character is blind, her eyes are not focused and a little confused, emotionally interpreting an old lady who is sealed in her own world. "Teacher Li" once fought for love, and also experienced the happiness of life in the process of pursuing love, however, the change of fate also made her suffer in despair and helplessness for 30 years.

"This is a woman who maintains her vitality, full of bone and tenacity in the wandering of despair." In the view of Zhang Xiang, artistic director of "Blossoms", Pan Hong grasped the inner tenacity under the fragmented appearance of "Teacher Li". This rich trait is the epitome of the tens of millions of women washed out by the tide of the times.

"She is the desolate undertones of our Blossoms and an indispensable bass for the city." Director Ma Junfeng said that if Shanghai is compared to a painting with rich layers, then "Teacher Li" is the layer lined at the end. "She is the background of the blur after you pull away the camera, although it is not clear but it is a guarantee of texture, she highlights the colors you see, and also gives the whole vision depth." 」

Pursuing the "Contemporary Expression" of Shanghai Culture

The second season of the stage drama "Blossoms" basically follows the youth main creative team of the first season: Wen Fangyi, a post-90s screenwriter, Ma Junfeng, a post-80s director, B6, a post-80s electronic musician, and a multimedia artist Lei Lei. There are 18 Shanghainese actors on the stage, who bring the audience into Shanghai in the 1970s and 1990s with delicate and solid performances.

The work begins with a small talk between Tao Tao and Hu Sheng. A feast of mixed conditions, a rare lament in this life flowed naturally through the stage play. Amid the cacophony, a panoramic portrait of the spirit of the city unfolds. New characters, new stories, echoing with old brothers and old friendships, life is full of laughter and tears. Some critics believe that "this is not only an artistic reproduction of Shanghai life, but also a continuous extension of Shanghai culture from geographical coordinates to emotional coordinates."

Remember the big disc on the main stage of the first season? When the disc is turned, it must have a deep meaning, and it is related to time. The second season inherits the stage temperament of the first season of "shuttle flow", and goes further in contemporary expression, from "relative realism" to "relative freehand". Two 16-meter-long conveyor belts, three ART DECO-style screens, and four 360-degree rotating construction platforms show "the complicated past, the colorful years, the gaps in life, and the undercurrents of human nature."

After the novel "Li Yan" for Shanghai, the stage continues to be Shanghai "Li Yin, Li Ying, Li Shen".

Source: Wen Wei Po