September 24 is the birthday of the great Chinese playwright Mr. Cao Yu and the 65th birthday of the Capital Theatre. Beijing Renyi not only staged Cao Yu's drama "Home" adapted from Ba Jin's novel at the Capital Theater; staged a new version of "Thunderstorm" at the newly opened Cao Yu Theater on the first floor of the Beijing International Theater Center; it also cleverly arranged for the classic work "Desire Under the Elm Tree" by the famous American playwright Eugene O'Neill, who had a great influence on Cao Yu, to be staged at the Beijing International Theater Theater on the third floor of the Renyi Theater, as the opening drama of the Renyi Theater; and specially invited Zheng Yunlong, an actor who was popular with the audience, to join the starring role. This has led to greater attention to the performance of the play.
In 2007, Beijing Renyi once put this film, known as "Desire Under the Elm Tree", on the stage of the former "Renyi Small Theater" located on the south side of the Capital Theatre. Fourteen years later, the new "Renyi Small Theater" in the Beijing International Theater Center opened. In this "black box" theater with more than 200 seats, "Desire Under the Elm Tree" was once again chosen as the opening play, which not only continued the dramatic memory between renyi and the audience, but also represented that renyi used classics to create theaters, also used classics to cultivate actors, and pursued an artistic attitude of continuous innovation.
Director Ren Ming said: "Choosing "Desire Under the Elm Tree" as the first performance repertoire of the 'Renyi Small Theater' is to use the classic to open the theater. Beijing Renyi's grand theater and small theater must stage classic plays, and they also perform both Chinese classics and foreign classics. Such an arrangement reflects the openness, internationality and exchange pattern of the Beijing International Drama Center. Mr. Cao Yu liked Eugene O'Neill very much, and he mentioned O'Neill's plays many times during his lifetime. Eugene O'Neill is a world-class theatre master, and Ren yi deserves his place as a classic theater. ”
At the same time as director Ren Ming, who served as the director of "Desire Under the Elm Tree", there was also an actor jungle who played Simon in the 2007 version of "Desire Under the Elm Tree" by Beijing Renyi. One is the director of the 2007 version, and the other is the actor of the 2007 version, ren Ming and the jungle co-direct this time, and more emphasis is placed on the in-depth excavation of this work. "As a world-famous drama that has been performed for a long time, 'Desire Under the Elm Tree' is unique in terms of the strength of the play, the height of the play and the intensity of the performance. This play is about desire, but also about human nature. Human nature is eternal, how people face desire, how to solve the relationship with desire, is the practical significance of our current stage of this work, but also can resonate with the current audience. ”
In addition to the classicity of the work and the eternity of the theme, director Ren Ming and Jungle also emphasized the innovation of this creation, "After 14 years, our understanding of life and the work will be different, so this creation is completely new." ”
"Desire Under the Elm Tree" revolves around the desires of human nature, telling the story of the love between the young son and the young stepmother who are determined to inherit the farm in the old Kebert farm, and the growth of desire and obsession is gradually out of control. Fierce contradictions and conflicts, complex character relationships, and profound human nature show make this work full of impact from content to form.
On the stage, the sloping ground, the rough walls, and even the furniture with a sense of originality all show wildness and desire. The rhythm of the shocking music also creates a strong emotional atmosphere.
As director Ren Ming and Jungle said, "Good actors shine on stage." "The performance is undoubtedly the core of this stage presentation.
Aibi, played by young actor Yu Mingjia, was sometimes enthusiastic on the stage, igniting the whole audience, and sometimes painful and moving. In her opinion, "Acting is actually acting logic, and each of my psychological bases is shown to the audience little by little, stringing together the dots and becoming a clear line." There are many sides of Aib in my heart, she faces Ibn as a man, there is a girl's side, a lover's side, a young woman's side, and a mother's side, her complex emotions, to be clearly displayed to the audience, the audience can understand her behavior. ”
The male protagonist Ibn of the play played by specially invited actor Zheng Yunlong not only has the fragility and sensitivity of the tragic character's heart, but also has a fierce explosive behavior full of dramatic tension, and between the ups and downs, you can see the actor's rich layer of character shaping.
"I've been searching for Ibn's inner basis, what is behind his melancholy and repression. This is not the performance method of life drama, but also a lot of imagination. For example, his feelings for his mother have always been like faith, and with these inner emotions, he can explode in an instant. Zheng Yunlong said, "Only self-investment can impress the audience." ”
When rehearsing the play before, director Ren Ming once sighed: "I am really afraid that Zheng Yunlong will be angry one day and strangle Yu Mingjia on the stage." In the performance, Ibn, played by Zheng Yunlong, repeatedly grabbed the neck of Abi, played by Yu Mingjia, out of impulse; the two also fell or knelt heavily on the hard floor many times... Closely feel the actors' passionate performance, let the audience often exclaim, but also let people more strongly feel the tragic fate of the characters and the complexity and profundity of human nature.
In addition to the male and female protagonists, the father, Kable played by the actor Li Lin, also gives the role an intriguing and rich connotation. Young actors such as Luo Xi, Liu Yi, Zeng Yongyong, Wang Kun, Zhu Shaopeng, Li Xuege and so on also contributed energetic and passionate interpretations.
In fact, the personal temperament of Zheng Yunlong and Yu Mingjia, two very dedicated actors, is far from the temperament of Ibn and Aiby in "Desire Under the Elm Tree". Ibn and Abi are two characters from poor and tortured backgrounds, but not willing to be realistic, full of wildness and desire, and growing up in such a natural environment full of rich local atmosphere, they should exude a primitive and exuberant hormonal atmosphere, and their behavior should also be in a state of wild impulse and uninhibited arrogance that is difficult to suppress.
But Zheng Yunlong's own temperament is clean and elegant, and even a little "ascetic"; Yu Mingjia has played most of the dignified and gentle roles of The Big Qingyi in the past, and the costumes in this play are also quite a bit of a noble lady or lady, so if they play Hamlet and the mother queen, it is obviously more suitable. But they are willing to challenge more difficult roles on the stage and strive to broaden their acting routes, which is still worthy of support and encouragement. If the costume design and director can give them more help from the outside in, I believe there will be a bigger breakthrough.
All along, Zheng Yunlong has been trying to cooperate with different creators and teams, not only not staying complacent about the achievements of variety shows and musical theater stages, nor nostalgic for the so-called popularity and traffic, but also resolutely rejecting the label of "Prince of Musicals", and constantly pursuing to become a more malleable and expressive actor. As a result, he also gained more love from the audience.
Knowing that there was a question about "how to view Zheng Yunlong's title of 'Prince of Musical Theater'", many viewers took the initiative to answer:
Zheng Yunlong once quoted a line from the musical "I, Don Quixote" starring him on Weibo: "Except for the soul, everything is something outside the body; don't indulge in today's old me, you must yearn for the rebirth of the Ming Dynasty." During the year of crossing the age of thirty, he not only tried filming and TELEVISION dramas, but also held his own solo concerts; he still stuck to the stage, not only continuing to perform the popular "Deling and Cixi", but also coming to Beijing Renyi, starring in classic dramas in small theaters.
This also reminds people that in the Cao Yu Theater downstairs of "Desire Under the Elm Tree", Pu Cunxin, who served as the director and star of the new version of "Thunderstorm", was actually limited by his own personal temperament of being polite and elegant, and even suffered from the breakthrough of his acting skills. But for so many years, he has always insisted on groping and exploring on the stage, and has long-term cooperation with such a senior and unique director as Lin Zhaohua, and has already completed the breakthrough from quantitative change to qualitative change, but he is still constantly broadening his own boundaries and constantly bringing surprises to people. And this is a path that is worthy of zheng yunlong, who also loves the stage, art, and constantly pursues himself.
Maybe there was a fate in the dark, otherwise Pu Cunxin and Zheng Yunlong would not have played the same role in the drama "Deling and Cixi", and this time they met at the newly opened Beijing International Theater Center.
On the day of the launch of "Desire Under the Elm Tree", Zheng Yunlong once said that his biggest regret this time was that he could not watch the premiere of "Thunderstorm". But it can be expected that when he finishes acting in "Desire Under the Elm Tree", he will definitely appear in the audience of the new version of "Thunderstorm" directed by Pu Cunxin.
"Desire Under the Elms" will be staged until October 17. Among them, from September 24 to October 3, October 9, 10, 16 and 17, Yu Mingjia, Zheng Yunlong and Li Lin starred, and the rest of the scenes starred Zeng Yongyi, Liu Yi and Li Lin. The two groups of actors have different styles and characteristics, which will bring different experiences to the audience.
Source Beijing Daily client · Art Bloom
Author and Editor of this issue: Wang Run
Photo by Wang Xiang and Li Chunguang
Producer: Zhou Nanyan
Process Editor Wu Yue