Spotlight 2021 Drama
In 2021, under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, Chinese drama has gradually formed a pattern of diversified exploration around themes, types and spaces. On the one hand, the genre and stage form continue to show new vitality, and at the same time, they further present new characteristics such as cross-media integration and multi-type compounding. High-definition images and online dramas have still become the main ways of communication between Chinese and foreign dramas. At the same time, with the audience experience as the core, multiple variations are displayed in the viewing space and interactive aesthetics. With the development of immersive cultural tourism and performing arts being emphasized by policy, the deep integration of theater and performing arts with tourist attractions and urban public spaces has spawned new types of performing arts.
Stills from Diary of a Madman
Original drama
Respond to tradition, reality and the present
Chinese local drama creation, there are surprise productions in both original and adaptation. Choreographers who once showed their style on the platform of various college student drama festivals and youth drama festivals have now formed their own styles and become the backbone of the development of local theater. In 2021, Huang Ying launched "Fu Shou Quan" and "Open Rice! Zhao Miao launched "Life Right", the "New Youth Theater Troupe" founded by Li Jianjun presented two critical works on the occasion of the tenth anniversary, "Metamorphosis" and "Between the World and the Sunset", the "Drama Nine" Troupe also planned the "Tenth Anniversary Drama Month", and created a new work "Double Maple", Ding Yiteng had "New West Chamber" and "I Am the Moon"... Chinese theater creators, especially young theater troupes and choreographers, respond artistically to tradition, reality or the present with their new works, surprising audiences in concepts and techniques.
Several original dramas deserve attention. Zhang Hui's "Mixed, Folding or Salad" expresses the thinking of life under the epidemic with the selection of three unique spaces. Chen Si'an's "Mortal Dreams" uses a large number of interviews as materials to tell the "daydreams" of ordinary people, and at the same time captures sensitive emotions and abstracts time and space processing, so that the audience can more easily form emotional resonance with the source of "daydreams" and obtain artistic beauty. "Two Knives" choreographed and directed by Yi Chi tries to leave more room for the audience to imagine by subtraction at the level of the play, although it is not successful in terms of viewing effect, it has made a rare exploration in the narrative of the small theater. Zhang Hang's "The King's Friend" focuses on the blankness of the "orphan's" revenge motive in "The Orphan of Zhao", traces back to the historical facts of "Zuo Biao", supplemented by artistic fiction, and discusses with the audience the growth of the Orphan of Zhao and the reflections left for the present. "William and I" written and directed by Tian Xiaowei focuses on Shakespeare's life and creation in three and a half hours, with an Elizabethan style of acting, allowing the audience to regain the power of tradition across time and space. "Drama Nine" of "Double Maple Chronicles" continues the troupe's attention to the theme of intellectuals in the Republic of China, and has become more and more mature in the design of the lines and the multi-time and space juxtaposition presented on the stage. The new work begins with the dialogue of three former friends of the literati in prison in 1933, leading to the past with a chess game, using a game to compare the pull and change of the relationship between the characters, supplemented by the perspective of the big drum artist and the people watching chess on the street, although there is a threshold in the lines, it is a rare small theater masterpiece. Artist Chen Peisi launched the stage trilogy "Frightening Dreams", which draws on the tradition of Kunqu opera with the compassion of comedy and has won praise from the audience.
Stills from "A Nightmare 2"
Stills from "Mix, Fold or Salad"
2021 is the centenary of the founding of the Party, and Tian Qinxin's "Live Broadcast of the Founding Ceremony" takes the story of Beiping Xinhua Radio Station in completing the task of "Live Broadcasting the Founding Ceremony" into the elements of espionage, and at the same time shows the spirit of exploration in the positive impact of the depth space on the viewing experience. Beijing Ren Yichuang Pai "Xiangshan Night" (written by Li Baoqun and directed by Ren Ming) reviews the arduous process of the Communist Party of China towards the New Democratic Revolution with the "time-space dialogue" of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, and the stage is characterized by the multiple interweaving of actors and characters, real time and space and psychological time and space, and explores the form of live performance for the first time in Xiangshan Shuangqing Villa.
Another important trend in theater creation in 2021 is that with the promotion of script killing, secret room, and suspense theme entertainment, many theater works have also opened the "suspense" genre. "Labyrinth of Hearts" (written by Chen Lu and Ma Tian, directed by He Nian), "Winter Light" (written by Gao Xing, directed by Chen Xin and Liu Henan), and "Walnut Without Ren" (written by Dong Yunfei, directed by He Xingjing and Dong Yunfei) often revolve around a case, giving full play to the advantages of the relatively confined space of the theater, and unfolding the cross-narrative of real time and space and psychological time and space. Today's theater audiences are increasingly not satisfied with just being a quiet spectator, and the emergence of the suspense type has realized the active participation of the audience's emotions and intelligence in the frame-style viewing relationship.
Adaptations and classics
Finding "theatricality" is key
In the 2021 Adaptation of Chinese Literature, "Dust Settled" (Original by Ah Lai, written by Cao Lusheng, directed by Hu Zongqi) uses "Fool" as the narrator of the whole play, providing the audience with the perspective of reading and connecting stories. "Activity Into Human Form" (Wang Meng's original work, written by Wen Fangyi, directed by Li Bonan) uses the turntable in the center of the stage to realize the transformation of multiple time and space in the original work, and provides the audience with the narrative of Ni Zao in front of the stage, supplemented by the "activity into human form" toy book-style stage design with disassembly and combination characteristics, trying to strengthen the reflection on intellectuals in the original novel. Gao Zhisen's "Fifteen Days of Two Capitals" (Ma Boyong's original work) uses more film shooting thinking, supplemented by a large screen, to visually transform the scenes of characters in the original work who travel long distances and drown in fire. Polish director Christian Lupa's "Diary of a Madman", as a continuation of the aesthetic achievements of Sino-foreign cooperation drama, lays out the hearts of Madmen in Lu Xun's pen into a unique temporal rhythm and presentation.
Stills from "Activity In Human Form"
Drama adaptations of literature (especially classic literature with a considerable readership) will make it easier to reach an emotional consensus with the audience. At the same time, the methods and focus of the choreographer's adaptation are also easier to identify. How to find a pluralistic theater presentation method based on the relationship between lines, performances, sounds, and stage designs, or superpositions, combinations, or contradictions is still an urgent issue for Chinese theater creation.
In terms of foreign literature, film and drama adaptations, Meng Jinghui's "The Red and the Black" aesthetically dismantled and reorganized Stendhal's original work. Gulou West Theater still continues to present the local classic literature and dramas of foreign countries, and has launched works such as "Inspector Visit", "Trio in E Major", "Between Man and Mouse" and so on. Director Li Jianjun's "Metamorphosis" replaced Kafka's traveling salesman with a courier numbered A659, and through the actor's limbs, images, sound effects and other elements, the transformation of the audience's emotions, identity and attitude was mobilized and designed, prompting the audience to experience the absurdity of Kafka's original work at the same time, but also to form an inability to stand out of the situation of the current individual life.
In terms of drama classics, Beijing Renyi has made a new arrangement of Cao Yu's "Thunderstorm", "Sunrise" and "Wilderness", and the deletion of "Thunderstorm" and the application of "Wilderness" to giant dolls are the means to explore how Cao Yu's plays have entered the hearts of today's audiences. The new row of "My Poor Malat" of the Renyi Small Theater interprets the classics with the rampaging performance space, and the actors' many designs in the performance details promote the thinking of foreign classic local performances.
In terms of adaptation in 2021, there have been multiple genre adaptations around the same object, including "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Orphans of Zhao", among which the development of dance dramas, especially national dance dramas, is worthy of attention. In 2019, the formation of the reputation of "The Eternal Electric Wave" and "Wake up the Lion" marked the beginning of a new stage of development of Chinese dance dramas. In 2021, the phenomenal dance drama "Crested Ibis" and "The Eternal Electric Wave" have been performed more than 300 times, and "Wake Up The Lion" is also performed in Macao. In the past two years, the national dance drama has attached importance to and explored the current audience experience, especially the dancers have begun to consciously interpret and perform the characters while exerting their physical narrative ability, which is a phenomenon worthy of attention. Jiangsu Grand Theatre's original national dance drama "Dream of the Red Chamber" fully calls on draperies, curtains, etc., to divide and cut the stage time and space vertically, and present scenes with clear emotional themes with the performance and rhythm of the actors' limbs. Whether it is the opening Jia Baoyu coming from the depths, or the creation of Baoyu in the "illusion" to "dream", or the simulation of fireworks with lights and sound effects, it creates a rich perception of time and space experience for the audience.
As a relatively new and fast-growing genre, Chinese musicals have accumulated some achievements in 2021 on the two development paths of IP and "Hanhua". "The Orphan of Zhao" and "Forgotten River Introduction" focus on traditional narrative archetypes or elements, and the Chinese version of "Rock and Roll Faust", "Rachmaninoff", "Romeo and Juliet" and so on have aroused heated discussion.
Stills from the musical "The Orphan of Zhao"
Fusion of science and art
Online drama and video are present
Chinese drama under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control in 2021 has continued the state of simultaneous exploration of online and offline. In terms of drama festivals, the Aranya Drama Festival, Wuzhen Theater Festival, Beijing International Youth Theater Festival, Lao She Drama Festival, Intermediate Theater Science and Technology Art Festival, China Theater Festival, Hangzhou International Drama Festival, Daliangshan International Drama Festival, etc., have all opened online drama units at the same time, and there are many experimental new works relying on online.
Wang Chong's "Plague" staged during the Hong Kong Arts Festival continued to focus on split-screen narratives, using classics to express thoughts on life under the epidemic. During the Intermediate Theater Science and Technology Arts Festival, "Imagination Field", with "Sound Theater in Your Bedroom" as the slogan, chooses station B to perform online, the whole process is always black screen, and the actors describe and instruct the audience in front of the screen through headphones to maximize the imagination of the audience.
In the "Drama Online" section of the Beijing International Youth Theater Festival, "Jet Lag" (Belgian body drama), "Have You Seen Fireflies No" (director Li Yating), "The Second Game" (directed by Xiao Jing), "Wasteland Dog" (choreographer Chen Laoju), and "Old People Dependent" (director Huang Bing), which focuses on the elderly community, were broadcast live on B station. The Daliangshan International Drama Festival opened an online screening unit. Under the influence of the epidemic, the 8th Contemporary Small Theater Opera Festival quickly switched the exhibition to online.
The offline screening of the Berlin Theatre Festival held by the Goethe-Institut (China) focused on the results of online theatrical experiments in the German-speaking area and expanded the time and space of Sino-foreign theater exchanges in 2021. At the same time, the "Script Market Plan" cooperated with the Berlin Theater Festival will present the German plays "Chicken Coop", "Animal Name" and "Midnight Movie" through the second degree of Chinese young directors, and meet and exchange with Chinese audiences. In addition, there are various video exhibitions relying on the theater festival, which show the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Taming" and "Romeo and Juliet". In 2021, Shingetsu Co., Ltd. and Shochiku Co., Ltd. launched a high-definition screening of Japanese Kabuki's "Kyo deer Zi Niang Nihonjinji Temple" and "Even the Lion", inspiring us to think about the commonalities of traditional Asian drama.
In recent years, the presence of cameras and screen images in theater performances has become a representative phenomenon of the integration of science and art and the expansion of the boundaries of drama. For theatrical performances facing the live audience, the presence of the screen and the use of technology will always be asked: the appropriation of image technology, in addition to expanding the freedom of time and space conversion in the theater, presenting some scenes that are difficult to present simply by body and lines, the presence of the camera, what can it bring to the theater? "The Abyss" (director He Nian) strengthens the suspenseful color of the work and the peeping of the audience through the presence and follow-up of the camera, and realizes an integrated aesthetic of live performance and image expression. This year, there are two new works, which also made their own personality answers to this: one is Huang Ying's "Fu Shou Quan", and the other is Li Jianjun's "Between the World".
Stills from "Fu Shou Quan"
"Fu Shou Quan" takes the experience of Zhang Changfu and Li Yanshou, a pair of cross-talk actors, growing up, from art to the end of their lives, as the core of the narrative. In terms of directorial logic, there are rich references to the narrative and performance of music art, and its call to real-time photography also has a rare breakthrough. On the one hand, through the top shooting, the audience gets a more free viewing angle; on the other hand, the use of cameras strengthens the immediacy and presentness of the performance.
Director Li Jianjun's "Between the World and the Sunset", as an exhibition and performance work of the Fourth Science and Technology Arts Festival of the Intermediate Theater, has a remarkable performance in the sense of strengthening the drama ontology through technology. The work reconstructs and interprets Fassbinder's 1973 film of the same name, with the film's green screen shooting scene as the main stage and the top screen as the composite image. By fully demonstrating the use of the green screen, the work reinforces the "hypotheticalness" of the theater performances– whether it is the design of the actors' limbs, the use of costumes and masks, or the narration of the scene, the deliberately exposed workbench, and the instantaneous switching of lights. The actor's transition between mask removal and wearing, narration between narration, and video transitions all make the audience realize that this is a performance about discussing the relationship between the real and the virtual.
Stills from "The World Is Between the Sun"
The integration of science and technology in the above-mentioned theater can jump out of the simple technical appropriation or coexistence of forms, and point to the viewing relationship between the theater stage and the live audience. How to better convey the essence of theater art in digital media is the foundation of all cross-media theater exploration.
Spectator relationship
"Experience economy" and "immersive" performing arts
The cross-media interaction between stage and screen can start from the variety show "Drama New Life" in early 2021. This variety show focuses on the vitality of young theater creators in different theatrical forms, and at the same time, it shoots and edits stage performances in a film and television way, popularizes drama with the help of the mass media characteristics of reality shows, and expands the offline theater audience.
Poster for "Drama New Life"
With the release of the "14th Five-Year Plan" cultural tourism plan, small performing arts works have been supported, and "immersive" cultural tourism performances have become an important trend at present and in the next few years, which has also brought new development ideas to small theaters.
In 2016, Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group introduced "Sleepless Nights", marking the development of "immersion drama" in China and beginning its own development path of resident immersion performing arts. As of 2021, Sleepless Nights has been on the scene for 5 years and has performed more than 1,300 times. Shanghai's "Fun Explorer" and Beijing's "No.5: Ghost Detective" also opened a new model of Sino-foreign cooperation. At the same time, in exploring the integration of local drama and urban public space, Happy Twist has launched a variety of attempts around the audience experience, including the food-themed "Stealing Hearts Dinner", the bar-style experience theme of "The Drunken Heart", the "Happy Chat Zai Sansheng" that tries to combine thriller and comedy, and the "Crazy Barbershop" and "Lilang 1992" that emphasize suspense.
At the same time, Beijing's "GuitangLou", "Qinglu Youming" and Tianjin's "Beiyang Sherlock", etc., borrowed from the performance mode of "Sleepless Nights", formed their own local characteristics, and cultivated a group of "re-brushing" audience groups. Shanghai's Asia Tower continues to house musicals and dramas, as well as small performing arts projects that explore the distance and form of performances, becoming a landmark building for drama. Although "Painted Skin 2677", which began in 2021 at Beijing's Star Drama Village, was dubbed "Post-Immersion Drama", the real uniqueness of this work lies in the positive interaction of the audience by embedding magic tricks, which is more effective than half the effort in creating illusions.
In these works, the audience is not just transformed from a spectator to a participant, but a player closer to a game. It is not difficult to foresee that the indoor performing arts complex with multiple clues and multiple spaces will become an important performing arts form that attracts audiences in the future development of China's theater industry.
For small performing arts projects that mainly rely on urban public spaces, especially commercial centers, the outstretched stage and the audience sitting on three sides will also become an important form of bringing the audience a composite entertainment experience in the future. On the one hand, the success of these spatial explorations increasingly depends on the diversified mobilization and emotional supply of the audience's perception experience, and at the same time, it is also reminiscent of the traditional forms of chinese and foreign performances. From the Suzhou garden opera "Six Memories of Floating Life", which premiered in 2018, to the series of garden and immersive plays of the "Chinese Opera Culture Week" held in Beijing Garden Expo Garden in recent years, including the immersive opera "Tea House" of the Beijing Ququ Opera Troupe in 2019, the immersive drama "Flowers as Media" of the China Critics Theatre in 2020, to the garden version in 2021, "Shajiabang" that integrates the elements of book review, etc., The thinking brought to us by these night tours and immersive operas is that the viewing space of Chinese drama actually has a long and rich immersive cultural tradition, from the "land-drawing as a field" in the era of origin, to the market space matured in the "Goulan Washe", to various teahouse theater gardens, all of which provide rich cultural and artistic soil for the construction of China's local immersive repertoire.
The relationship between Chinese theater and performance has undergone rich and diversified changes from the experiment of the liberation of the concept of theater in the 1980s, to the expansion of consumption and market in the transformation of the market economy in the 1990s, and then to the symbiosis of drama and urban public space under the concept of experience economy. Today's audiences are more eager to get out of daily life and get a pleasant time and space experience. This inescapable fact leads us from the dichotomy between art and business to a more complex and more vital discussion.
Chinese drama in 2021 has shown new vitality in its steady development, while constantly expanding new possibilities in the boundaries of creation and the integration of technology. Behind the new changes in the relationship between the audience and the performance is the promotion of the overall development trend with the audience experience as the core in the socio-economic and cultural development. In 2022, Chinese small theater drama will usher in the 40th anniversary, looking back on the past and looking forward to the future, Chinese drama opens up a broader space for development and ideas, and also provides creators with more new opportunities for aesthetic exploration.
(Author Lai Di: Drama Critic, University Teacher)
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