Shanghai, which has dramas throughout the year, recently announced the 2022 "Performance Calendar", and among the 394 key projects, performances in the performing arts world region accounted for about 70%. On the evening of January 13, the Chinese version of the musical "Fan Letter" arrived as promised, starring "Sound into People's Hearts" contestants, musical actors Xu Junshuo and Liu Yan, and opened its national premiere in Shanghai Cultural Square. The original Korean version of the musical "Fan Letter" has been hailed as "a work that rewrites the history of Korean original musical theater", and this localization adaptation lasted four years, and the main creative team also moved the background of the story to Shanghai in the 1940s.
In 2017, Fei Yuanhong, deputy general manager of Shanghai Culture Square Theater Management Co., Ltd., observed the original performance of "Fan Letter" for the first time in South Korea and was deeply impressed. In 2018, the play came to Shanghai as one of the invited plays of the "Korean Original Musical Promotion Awards" and became the most popular musical theater masterpiece of the year. Today, the Chinese version of "Fan Letter" has become the sixth musical independently produced by Shanghai Culture Square, and it is also the longest-running Chinese version of the musical. Fei Yuanhong said: "Although there are many external factors such as the epidemic and other force majeure, the most critical reason lies in the repeated deliberation and patience of the main creative team to polish the drama. The background of the story is moved to Shanghai in the same period, based on many considerations such as historical narrative, cultural field and the fate of individual intellectuals. ”
In the 20th century, both China and South Korea were conquered by the Japanese army, and the literary circles of the two countries were also in the golden age of modern literary development in the 1940s. The same national memory and similar literary development provide the soil for transplantation for the adaptation of "Fan Letters". The Chinese edition of the production of the story background, characters, etc. to localize the adaptation, the background of the story set in the important town of literature and publishing - Shanghai, to tell a generation of Young Chinese talents concerned about the fate of the nation, the pursuit of literature and art and the desire for love.
Director Gao Ruijia said that in order to get close to that era, he read a lot of works created by literati in those years and also visited the places where they worked. The stage design of "Fan Letter" magnifies the elements of books and texts. "We put literary imagery in a stage setting rather than a realistic, concrete scene." The costume design zhu ya also let a group of literary youth have a vivid and distinctive face.
Actor Xu Junshuo played the role of Zheng Weilan in the play. Because of the fame of "Sound into People's Hearts", he has also received many "fan letters", in which the audience will share with him the changes in his life, such as what university he was admitted to and what kind of love he had. "The handwritten letters made me feel very warm, and my grandmother always wrote to me. The words in the letter are deliberate and refined, narrative and opinionated, heavy, so every letter makes me care. ”
From the musical "Romeo and Juliet" to "Fan Letters", from the world's classic drama IP to the popular masterpieces of Asian theater, Shanghai Culture Square continues to explore more Chinese content expression through localization adaptation. After 6 consecutive performances in Shanghai, "Fan Letter" will go to Beijing, Nanjing, Shenzhen and other places to start the first round of national tour.