In 2021, Yanghua's newly created drama "You and Me, Seven Wonderful Steps of Theater" was recently premiered in Beijing, and thus kicked off the prelude to the national tour. The drama integrates "Thunderstorm", "Wilderness", "Sunrise", "Beijinger" and "Winter Journey", "New Wilderness", "Do You Still Play Guitar?" Seven fragments of the play by Cao Yu and Wan Fang, the father and daughter of the playwrights, reflect the changes of the times in Chinese society in the past hundred years and the humanistic feelings of Chinese drama spanning a hundred years from one side.
Wang Keran, the director of the play, said that every fragment and every character in the play has a strong dramatic power. In the fragments of Cao Yu's works, "The Wilderness" outlines the vast land of China, which seems to be far away from and inherits the fate of today's sentient beings and the protagonist's strong desire to break free from the shackles; "Beijingers" is full of conflicts between goodness and ugliness, new life and decay, light and darkness; "Sunrise" makes people see the darkness and decay of the old society, and produces a vigilance and mirror for human nature; "Thunderstorm" shouts out the hope and yearning of the young generation for life and the future, and the vision of the ideal society.
In the fragments of Wanfang's works, "Winter Journey" is full of literati style and spiritual outlook, expresses humanistic care, and conveys the warmth of drama; "New Wilderness" is a portrayal of the fate of Chinese women in the millennium history of poetic integration of drama and literary expression; "Do you still play the guitar?" " put forward the eternal thinking of "why people live and how to live".
"The group portraits from Cao Yu to Wan Fang's pen constitute a 'long street of life' that integrates time and space. The lyricism of people and the depiction of human nature make every story and stage image reflect the present and produce empathy. Wang Keran said.
Wan Fang said that the seven fragments in "You and Me, The Wonderful Seven Steps of theater" are both independent chapters and echo each other, and are interpreted on the same stage set to form a complete theatrical work. The title also has a unique meaning: "You and I" is a book she recalls her father's generation, "you and I" represents the meaning of father and child, past and present, classic and present, drama and audience; "seven steps" is both a measure of the pace of dramatic action and the integration of seven works.
Reporter: Wang Peng
Editors: Leng Yanyan, Luan Ruohui
Stills are provided by the performer