People's Daily Fuzhou, December 17 (Liu Baoqin) Recently, the original Hakka puppet drama "Red Devil", created by the Hakka Puppet Art Transmission Center in Shanghang County, Longyan City, debuted at the 8th Fujian Arts Festival, winning the praise of the audience and judges.
This is the return of a large-scale opera in Shanghang to the Fujian Provincial Drama Stage after 40 years. The stage of this drama , "Hakka Puppet RuyiTai" and the performance technique "Puppet Lifting Puppet" have become the first in the country, carefully crafted in terms of screenwriting, performance, composition, stage and other aspects, so that the Hakka puppet show in western Fujian has reached a new level.
The protagonist of "Little Red Devil", Long Mu, passes the first level when he delivers intelligence to the Red Army. Long Mu appeared as a puppeteer, accompanied by a lion dance performer. The set in the play has many Hakka houses, ancient pavilions, ancient arches, etc., which fully reflects the local characteristics of Hakka in western Fujian. People's Daily Photo by Liu Baoqin
Story: The young Dragon Embarks on the Revolutionary Road
"Little Red Devil" tells the story of a teenager from a puppet family, Long Mu, and his grandfather Liu Zhankui who treated Wang Xin, a wounded member of the Red Army, and gradually embarked on the revolutionary road with the help and influence of Aunt Qiu and Wang Xin, the heads of local party organizations.
The whole drama has nine chapters: breakthrough, descent, medicine collection, righteousness, surprise, sneak attack, joining the army, passing the level, and victory.
On the eve of the Gutian Conference in 1929, Long Mu and his grandfather Liu Zhankui accidentally rescued a wounded Red Army soldier Wang Xin on the mountain; in the process of carrying out his mission, Liu Zhankui unfortunately died; Long Mu, under the leadership of Aunt Qiu and Wang Xin, blew up the arsenal of Zhang Tuan's training department and embarked on the revolutionary road from then on. After the Gutian Conference, Long Mu grew rapidly in the ranks of the Red Army, using Hakka puppet performances as a cover, and repeatedly completed the important task of passing on information, becoming an excellent little soldier of the Red Army.
"Little Red Devil" is a red-themed puppet show that shows the revolutionary spirit of western Fujian through children's perspectives, exaggerated techniques, vivid plots, vivid characters, and exquisite performance art.
Highlights: "Puppet Tea Art" made a stunning appearance
In the fourth chapter of the puppet drama of "Little Red Devil", before Grandpa Liu Zhankui bravely took the righteousness, the tea artist girl practiced tea for the White Army Zhang Tuan, and the "puppet tea art" performance was amazing. The performance technique was originally created by the Hakka Puppet Art Transmission Center of Shanghang County.
In June this year, the Hakka puppet show in western Fujian was included in the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative inheritance projects. Shanghang is the birthplace of Hakka puppetry in western Fujian. In recent years, the Hakka Puppet Art Transmission Center of Shanghang County has made breakthroughs in the art of puppetry in western Fujian through innovative performance projects and techniques such as "puppet changing face" and "puppet tea art".
The puppet tea artist is practicing tea making for the White Army Zhang Tuan, and the "puppet tea art" is performed by Huang Feihuan. People's Daily Photo by Liu Baoqin
Puppet tea art is to combine the two traditional cultures of puppetry and tea art, and use puppets to perform a series of tea art processes such as boiling water, brewing tea, scraping foam, pouring tea, etc., which is the innovation and breakthrough of puppet art in western Fujian.
How to lift the traction by relying on a few thin lines to perform the tea art of Fujian? "The key is to solve the contradiction between the shaking of the soft line and the precision of making tea." According to the performer Huang Feihuan, not only to work the props, but also to practice hard. In order to do a good job in puppet tea art performance, Huang Feihuan practiced hard for a year.
It is reported that the "Puppet Tea Art" program performed by Huang Feihuan went abroad in the "Hai Silk Tea Ceremony" foreign cultural dissemination activities organized by Fujian Province in 2018 and 2019, and appeared in South Africa, the Philippines, Malaysia and other countries. The program has also been invited to perform in the media at all levels many times, becoming the "propaganda messenger" of Hakka culture.
Breakthrough: The stage and performance techniques are the first in the country
The puppet family interprets hakka stories, and the heroes write red legends with blood. The puppet drama "Little Red Devil" brings out the core element of "puppet" to the fullest, such as the protagonist Long Mu from a puppet family, using puppet performance as a cover to pass on information, puppet performance to raise the line puppet, etc.; the plot design is clever, which won the applause of the audience.
The protagonist of "Little Red Devil", Long Mu, uses puppet performances to deceive the trust of white soldiers, that is, the "puppets mention puppets" performance scene. People's Daily Photo by Liu Baoqin
In the scene of "puppet lifting puppets", the performance technique of "puppet transformation" is embedded; it turns out that the puppet carried by Long Mu is an old man, and he instantly becomes a young girl. People's Daily Photo by Liu Baoqin
In the eighth chapter of "Little Red Devil", "Passing the Level", there is a plot in which the protagonist Long Ye uses a puppet show to deceive the trust of the White Army soldiers (pictured above).
It is reported that the "marionette performance of the marionette" is a major innovation and highlight of the play, which is the first in the country. "The show requires 4 actors to operate at the same time, and the focus is on bold ideas, a bit like magic." Huang Feihuan introduced that in order to achieve this innovation, they racked their brains and made various attempts.
"New breakthroughs in the puppet stage, new development of puppet stunts, new vision of puppet performance." Qiu Baoming, director of the Hakka Puppet Art Transmission Center in Shanghang County, commented on "Little Red Devil".
According to Qiu Baoming, this puppet show was the first in the country to create the "Hakka Puppet Ruyi Stage", designed five organically connected sky bridges, increased the performance area, strengthened the depth of the stage, and changed the traditional puppet performance "single bridge left and right dispatch" to "multi-bridge front and back left and right dispatch", which greatly improved the expressiveness of the puppets.
After the performance, the creators and actors came out to meet and thank the audience. People's Daily Photo by Liu Baoqin
It is reported that a total of 39 people participated in the whole drama in front of and behind the scenes. Among them, there are 16 puppeteers and 11 stage dancers. The stage effect makes full use of the scientific and technological achievements of sound, light and electricity, and shows a good dramatic effect through the combination of virtual and real techniques.
Qiu Baoming said that the participation of "Little Red Devil" in the Fujian Provincial Drama Show is a huge promotion to the Hakka puppet show of the national intangible cultural heritage, which has brought the protection and inheritance work to a new level.