Reporter | Chen Jiajing Lin Ziren
Edit | Lin Zi people
1【Shanghai】Immersive suspense theater "Forensic Qin Ming - Corpse Whisperer"
Performance period: December 24, 2021 - February 28, 2022
Venue: 1862 Fashion Arts Center
The immersive suspense theater "Forensic Qin Ming - Corpse Whisperer" is adapted from the phenomenon-level novel of the same name, and "Corpse Whisperer", as the first work of the "Forensic Qin Ming" series, has attracted strong response from readers as soon as it was released. This drama creates a new story line based on the original novel, director He Nian as the producer, Zhang Xuanhao, who has rich experience in immersion drama directing, serves as the director, and the audience will follow the forensic doctor Qin Ming to Shiqiao Town in 100 minutes as a "practicing forensic doctor" to investigate a bizarre scorched corpse case that occurred in 1999, and after carefully exploring the story lines of the butcher shop owner, the video shop uncle, the old Chinese medicine doctor, etc., carefully reasoned and found the real culprit.
From December 24, 2021, "Forensic Qin Ming - Corpse Whisperer" opened its annual residency performance at the 1862 Fashion Art Center. As an immersive suspense drama, "Forensic Qin Ming - Corpse Whisperer" is particularly suitable for script killing enthusiasts and chamber lovers: in order to bring each audience a realistic experience of extreme immersion, the stage scene adopts full real-life equivalence modeling, 1:1 restoration of the real street, film and television level scene settings, the use of light and dark interlaced light and smoke devices to simulate weather changes, the real sensory experience seems to make people step into the desolate town in the original book. The exquisite structural layout makes the town as mysterious and complex as a labyrinth, and the audience will cross the sidewalk, bypass the town square, enter the narrow laneway, and step into different story lines.
Drama "Alcoholics Can Not Be"
Performance time: February 12-13
Venue: Shanghai Grand Theatre
"Alcoholics" is adapted from the only novel written in the form of a theatrical script before Shi Tiesheng's death, "The Idea of a Drama Set in a Movie". Adapted and directed by Polish drama master Christian Lupa, the play continues Lupa's consistent "long performance time" characteristics, telling the loneliness of the individual, the misunderstanding of the people around him and the helplessness of reality through the perspective of the "alcoholic" in 5 hours. As a 2016 annual funding project of the National Arts Fund, the play won the Best Repertoire, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress at the 7th International Theatre "Academy Awards" in 2017, and was performed in many domestic drama and arts festivals, which was well received.
The play is divided into three acts, looking at his own daily life from the perspective of "Alcoholics Mo Fei". The entire stage is set against a large projection screen, where alcoholics travel through time and space with a large number of background images, and engage in dialogue with people and events at all stages of their lives. In addition to the original content, Lu Pa also integrated plot fragments from works such as "I and the Temple of Earth", "Acacia Tree", "Fate" and so on, so that Shi Tiesheng's life experience became part of the narrative of the script.
In order to rehearse this play, Lu Pa watched the original novel of more than 40,000 words and the documentary of Shi Tiesheng, and went to the Temple of Earth three times to explore the survival and thinking of this Chinese writer. As for whether he is the real Shi Tiesheng presented on the stage, it is up to the audience to judge.
Happy Twist 2021 Annual Drama "The God of Wealth Arrives"
Performance time: February 12-20
Venue: Hongqiao Art Center
Today's heavenly court is no different from the workplace, and even the gods and immortals have to conduct quarterly KPI assessments. After the god of wealth Zhao Gongming's "help the rich do not help the poor" incident was exposed, the human set collapsed and the KPI plummeted. The god of wealth descended on Songjiang Province, and his mana was lost, and only by helping the poor Hao Youqian to become the richest man in the world could he reshape his human design and return to the heavenly court. The Inner Scroll Immortal's plan to "become rich" for lying ordinary people began with a laugh.
In November last year, the first round of 25 performances of the happy twist 2021 annual drama "The God of Wealth Driving" was generally praised by the audience, directly calling "baggage stacked out", Guan Yunchang's rap was the biggest surprise of the audience. Under the shell of the costume fairy comedy, "The God of Wealth" has a black humor core, a spicy satire on the unspoken rules of contemporary workplace interpersonal communication, and I believe that young urban white-collar workers will resonate.
Lehal operetta in three acts: Kingdom of Smiles
Performance time: February 25-26
Venue: Shanghai Oriental Art Center Opera Hall
Speaking of The Chinese story of European fantasies, in addition to the famous Puccini opera Turandot, there is also the three-act operetta "Kingdom of Smiles" by the Hungarian composer Lejal. Lehal was encouraged by Dvořák during the composition, with the Chinese prince's aria "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" (You are the love of my heart) one of the most highly sung songs in the play.
"The Kingdom of Smiles" tells the love story that takes place in the last years of the Qing Dynasty in the early 20th century. Lisa, the count's daughter, fell in love with the Chinese ambassador to Vienna, Prince Sioux, and despite her sweetheart's worries about her foreign life and the objections of her family and friends, Lisa insisted on following Sioux City to the Forbidden City. However, the short-lived sweetness and romantic vision are shattered by reality - the fact that Sioux City compromised with feudal etiquette to marry other girls made Lisa unacceptable. In the face of her resentment and hatred, Sioux City went from threatening to house arrest, but finally fulfilled Lisa's freedom by letting go, returning the smile she had taken with her own hands to her beloved.
In 2018, "The Kingdom of Smiles," co-produced by the Shanghai Opera House and the Grand Palace of Arts in Budapest, Hungary, premiered the play at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center in Chinese mainland. The Chinese prince played by tenor Shi Yijie is dashing and affectionate, and it is also full of praise. After four years, "Smile Kingdom" has once again landed at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, and Shi Yijie will once again lead the starring role.
【Beijing】
Chinese version of the musical Sherlock Holmes: Secrets of The Andersons
Performance period: February 25 - February 27
Venue: Beijing Century Theatre
Premiered in 2011, the original Korean musical Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of The Anderson Family is beloved by Korean audiences for its clever blend of murder, detective reasoning and love stories, and its Japanese version has also achieved a 90% attendance rate of 7 consecutive performances. In addition to retaining the suspense structure in Conan Doyle's classic literature, the play also tries to give a new life to the classics in the context of the 21st century era. Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as a more paranoid and obsessive-compulsive character than in the novel, and the way he is represented on stage is more modern. Another major subversive attempt at this drama is to adopt the setting of sexual transformation of the classic character of Watson. The existence of the female version of Watson not only breaks the male-centric perspective, but also plays a substantial role in balancing the musical listening.
This performance in Beijing is the second stop of the first round of the national tour of the Chinese edition of "Sherlock Holmes". The Chinese version retains the basic characteristics of the original group portrait characters to the greatest extent, revealing the core value of the whole play: "Behind the pursuit of truth and protection of justice, there is a struggle again and again about human choices." At the same time, the new arrangement also adds rhythm and color to the work, so that the music can better promote the emotional development of the characters.
The Musical "Letter from a Fan"
Performance period: February 26 - February 27
Venue: Beijing Poly Theater
"Fan Letter" is also adapted from the Korean original musical of the same name. In the original version, Korea was colonized by Japan in the first half of the 20th century, but the literary world entered a golden age of modern literary development. Chinese edition adapted with this background in mind, eventually setting the story in Shanghai, which has a similar history, in 1943. A high-profile gossip began to spread: the last personal letter from the recently deceased novelist Hai Ming and the female writer Xia Guang was about to be published. The publisher, Li Ling, is now being held in the Detention Center of the Japanese Gendarmerie because of his involvement in the editing of Chaohua magazine. Zheng Weilan, who admired Haiming very much, found Li Ling. In order to witness this "fan letter", Wei Lan and Li Ling began to slowly recall Xia Guang's mysterious past... By telling the story of a generation of young Chinese talents who pursue literature and art and their expectations for love, "Fan Letters" gives us a glimpse of the inner emotional world of the people below in the special era.
Drama "Beyond the Horizon"
Performance time: January 20 - February 6
Venue: Beijing Renyi Experimental Theater
"Beyond the Horizon" is one of the masterpieces of the American playwright Eugene O'Neill, which premiered on Broadway in 1920 and immediately won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In the story, the younger brother Robert is a young man with a dream, he has always wanted to leave home to find a beautiful dream outside the sky, and the older brother Andrew is a farmer who loves and is good at dealing with the land. The two brothers fall in love with the girl next door, Ruth, and they make their own choices between dreams and reality, but seem to be getting farther and farther away from the good life.
The Beijing Renyi version of "Beyond the Horizon" changes the gray tone of the original work and poetically reproduces the huge conflict between the ideals and reality of several young people in the way of "tragic and joyful arrangement". "Life is broken, and it is repaired with living." Director Wang Ban quoted a sentence from the author O'Neill to represent his understanding of this work and the original intention of creating this work. He said that everyone has their own heart outside the sky, this drama is exploring and asking about life, but in the end we will embrace life.