On January 12th and 13th, sponsored by the Propaganda Department of the Taiyuan Municipal Party Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Taiyuan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, and created by the Taiyuan Jinju Art Research Institute, the newly compiled Jin drama "Zhuang Zhou's Trial Wife" was officially premiered at the Taiyuan Youth Palace Performing Arts Center in Shanxi.
The newly compiled Jin drama "Zhuang Zhou's Wife Test" is based on the Ming Dynasty Feng Menglong's novel "Zhuangzi Xiu Drum Basin into the Avenue", in which Zhuang Zhou is a sage, but the sage is also a mortal, and the seven passions and six desires of man make him do absurd things. Although he later realized something, his behavior and the "rules of the world" behind him have killed innocent people without bloodshed.
The play has a strong experimental nature, not a conventional interpretation of the story, but the construction of the psychological world of the characters, but also sad and happy, but also solemn and harmonious, very absurd, comedic and speculative. Zhuang Zhou in the play is not the true image of Zhuangzi, but borrows zhuangzi, a sage and wise figure, to make a human investigation and examination through "test wife". Zhuangzi's "scalpel" was initially pointed at his wife Tian Shi, and finally pointed to himself, from the examination of female women's morality to the examination of his own human nature, and the wife tested the awakening of women's self-consciousness and also tested the hypocrisy of her own humanity.
The main creative lineup of jin opera "Zhuang Zhou's Test Wife" is strong, with the famous playwright and first-class screenwriter Xu Di as the screenwriter, Cao Qijing, the doctoral tutor of the Central Academy of Drama, as the general director, Xu Mengke, a first-class actor of the National Peking Theatre, as the executive director, Liu Heren, the first-class composer of the Shanxi Jin Theater, Cheng Wenjie, the young composer of the Shanxi Jin Theater, Meng Wen, the first-class composer of the Jinzhong Art Research Institute, as the music singing voice design, Liu Qikai, the young composer of the Shanxi Provincial Peking Theater, as the music choreographer, and the doctoral tutor of the Central Academy of Drama. Liu Xinglin, vice president of the China Stage Art Society, served as the stage design, Hu Yaohui, doctoral supervisor of the Central Academy of Drama, deputy secretary general of the China Stage Art Society and director of the Lighting Professional Committee, served as the lighting design, Lan Ling, deputy director of the First Class Stage Design and China Costume Technology Committee, Zhang Ying, the first-class stage designer of Zhejiang Xiaobaihuayue Theater, served as the costume design, Yan Yao, a first-class performer of the Taiyuan Jinju Art Research Institute, served as the percussion design, and Xie Tao, vice chairman of the China Dramatists Association and a famous Jin opera performance artist, starred. Zheng Fangfang, a first-class actor of Jinzhong Performing Arts Co., Ltd., starred.
The whole play is beautiful and elegant, the words are beautiful, the penmanship is skilled and old enough to be rich in dramatic tension, both profound philosophy and abundant poetry, "learning from the ancient is not muddy, breaking the law is not contradictory", the pursuit of the modern character of classical art, full of modern consciousness, the modern people's speculative consciousness is cast in it, providing a broad creative space for stage performances, rich in connotation and far-reaching intentions.
In the play, the performance style of "modern empty stage art without scenes" is adopted, following the principle of "big writing", giving full play to the virtuality, stylism, comprehensiveness, rhythm, and freedom of time and space of opera art, making full use of the stage assumption, no number of scenes, time and space processing has the greatest degree of freedom, and the stage presents ethereal, simple, smooth, with some magical colors.
At the same time, through the construction of the psychological space of the characters through music, the delicate and in-depth psychological portrayal of the characters with the singing voice and music, revealing the complex psychological activities of the characters, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and changing the usual way of symphonic band accompaniment, from complex to simple, using simple means to express the rich stage style, and exerting the expressiveness of each instrument itself to the extreme.
The play excavates and gives play to the performance methods of traditional opera, pays attention to various techniques such as singing, confession, and body, externalizes the psychological activities of the characters, especially adopts unconventional creative forms, crosses the restrictions of the industry, especially the protagonist Zhuang Zhou, and changes his identity from time to time, sometimes he is a sage of the xianfeng Dao bone, and sometimes he is a personable prince and grandson, expanding the boundaries of the performance. In addition, the child and the flower girl in the play also play both the living and the paper man, and the 10 actors who play the old woman are also changing multiple roles.
The psychological activities of the characters in the play are not single, they are multi-layered, Zhuang Zhou is not only a sage who is high and talkative, but also an ordinary person who has fallen to the altar, Tian Shi is a lady Zhuang who abides by women's morality, and is also a true woman who passionately pursues love, human nature will only be exposed under extreme circumstances, the essence of human nature is unpredictable and cannot be tried, zhuang Zhou's actions seem funny but profound.
The newly edited Jin drama "Zhuang Zhou Trial Wife" is unprecedented from style style to character shaping, from script characteristics to creative ideas, constantly breaking through the past creative mode, opening up a new creative idea for the innovative development and creative transformation of Jin opera art, and making the ancient Jin opera art bloom again in the new era.
(The performance scene was filmed by Zhu Meng)
Editor-in-charge: Yang Xiaojun