Puxian drama "Borrowing a Bride": change the tone of laughter to weathering

The three of them each sang with their own thoughts full of humor.

The popular comedy "Borrowing a Bride" is a play created by Mr. Zheng Huaixing in the 1980s, which was directed by Mr. Zhu Shifeng, a famous director of Puxian Opera, and rehearsed by the Duwei Opera Troupe of Xianyou County, and caused a sensation as soon as it was staged.

A few days ago, the Carp Sound Theater Troupe specially invited Mr. Ouyang Ming, a national first-class director, to direct, rearranging this popular comedy with a history of more than 30 years, the ideological connotation of the play is timeless, and it is also deeply infected by contemporary audiences in social warning and human nature thinking.

"Borrowing the Bride" tells that in order to seek gambling funds, the gambling stick Lao Lai co-starred with the misguided young Guo Xiaobao in a farce of borrowing a bride to deceive the gift. In the scam, the target of the deception is Guo Xiaobao's uncle and aunt (Qiu Xifu and Guo Shi), and the one who pretends to be Guo Xiaobao's bride is Lao Lai's own daughter Lai Lian'er.

This story is reminiscent of the Four Fold Plays (i.e. "Zhang Antique Borrowing Wife" (i.e. "Zhang Antique Borrowing Wife") included in the Qing Dynasty's "White Qiu". The story of borrowing a wife tells the helplessness and bitterness of the poor's life, and its purpose is to mock and ridicule Zhang's behavior of borrowing and losing his wife, with the characteristics of folk music. Mr. Zheng Huaixing's "Borrowing a Bride" is based on this bridge section, changing the tone of laughter to weathering, creating another intriguing story.

There are seven puxian dramas "Borrowing a Bride", of which the fourth is the turning point of the whole play. At the beginning of the curtain, the stage is an early morning country road, and several young couples come on the stage happily. Guo Xiaobao and Lai Lian'er, who pretend to be husband and wife, are suddenly ashamed of themselves in the wild songs and laughter of the peasant couple, and the originally planned scam seems to present a certain uncertainty.

Lai Lian'er's heart fluctuated, and she sighed, "Seeing the pair of real couples, wearing flowers and willow swallows flying twice." Lang Lang laughed in his ears, and he was ashamed of the little lotus on the donkey." Here, Lai Lian'er's name itself is given by the playwright the meaning of "out of the mud and not stained". In the face of her father's deception, she believes that pretending to be a bride to deceive is a violation of customs and customs, a harm to nature, and confesses her heart that she would rather starve to death than deceive people. But Lao Lai set up a small deception to earn her kindness and softness in order to achieve her goal, and poor Lian'er finally chose trust and obedience out of love and attachment to her father.

Similarly, in the well-intentioned ridicule of the villagers, Guo Xiaobao, a young man who had lost his footing, also felt embarrassed. Although Guo Xiaobao was lured into the casino by Lao Lai and went astray, his conscience was not lost. In the cheerful laughter of the simple villagers, he also realized the dirtiness in his heart, sighing that "all the way pedestrians praise good couples, hate is difficult to hide their ears and shame." Borrowing his wife to deceive his aunt is ugly, once the infamy is revealed", so he can only silently pretend to be deaf and dumb.

However, the unmarried young men and women who pretend to be husband and wife on the ancient country road are quite fond of each other's appearance on the one hand, and dislike each other's moral flaws on the other. At this time, the stage singing was very cleverly designed: Guo Xiaobao secretly mocked Lai Lian'er, "Lao Lai's mouth is like grease, instigating his daughter not to be ashamed." Sneaking a peek at the fake wife Duo Qingxiu, pity her good flowers and stinky ditches", Lai Lian'er lamented that she was "expelled by her father to be ugly, and Chunjiang is difficult to wash her daughter's shame", on the one hand, she also disliked Guo Xiaobao's "stealing eyes of the fake husband Duo Junxiu, hating him for being a cloaked monkey". Only Lao Lai is still immersed in his own scam and cannot extricate himself, immersed in the daydream of imminent profit.

On the stage, the three people's heartfelt lyrics are full of humor. But the excitement of this play is more than this, the playwright suddenly let Guo Xiaobao tease the donkey, the frightened donkey almost let Lian'er fall, Lao Lai wanted to teach the donkey, but the donkey ran wildly with Lian'er. Lao Lai, who was knocked down by the donkey, had no choice but to urge Xiao Bao to quickly chase the donkey to save Lian'er, and he slowly followed behind, which gave Guo Xiaobao and Lai Lian'er a perfect opportunity to be alone. The two young men slowly got to know each other in the process of mocking and arguing with each other, and each put aside his prejudices.

At the end of this scene, Lian Er has asked Guo Xiaobao to help her get on the donkey. The simple human feelings of the countryside summon the true feelings of the two young people, and also quietly dissolve the misunderstanding between them and the sophisticated routine, which also implies that Lao Lai's elaborate deception is about to reverse.

In the final scene of the play, the fake couple Guo Xiaobao and Lai Lian'er follow Lao Lai's arrangement and continue to promote the scam, but are suddenly hindered by Guo's enthusiastic stay - like the Qing Dynasty opera "Zhang Antique Borrowing Wife", a pair of fake Mandarin ducks are arranged in the same bedroom. The difference is that the Putian drama "Borrowing the Bride" abandons the depiction of ambiguous scenes, and uses the true feelings between a pair of young people to defeat the world, and uses the love of the aunt to impress the out-of-control youth.

In this scene, Lian'er's bitter criticism of Xiao Bao, Qiu Xifu and Guo's affectionate exhortation to Xiao Bao, all impacted and touched Xiao Bao's heart little by little, it was precisely "her words are like a sword that is difficult to resist, I am too late to humiliate my ancestors" "My aunt is affectionate like a sweet spring, trickling into my heart", Xiao Bao, who has experienced moral, true feelings and rational baptism, finally fell to his knees in front of his aunt, confessed his ugly deeds of borrowing a bride to deceive his relatives of money, and prepared to crash to death after leaving the last words of "throwing corpses into the wilderness after death to feed dogs, and burying the family mountain to insult the ancestors". The uncle lamented that "the prodigal son does not change his head, and if the heavens have affection, he is also happy", and Lian'er also forgave him and expressed his willingness to "weave with men and women, rough and light rice for a hundred years", and the story ended with a happy scene.

As a popular comedy, the Puxian opera "Borrowing the Bride" vividly and humorously shows the humanity and human feelings of ordinary people in daily life, here, although there is ridicule and criticism, there is no sharp irony and heavy criticism; although there are depictions and revelations of routines and world conditions, it also gives sympathy and compassion, which is a comedy that is both joyful and humorous and enlightening.

The first meaning of this comedy is to exhort the world not to be greedy or lazy, to be just, and to be diligent in building a homeland, but it also provokes us to think at a deeper level: in daily life that is inevitably mixed with various selfishness, routines, and sophistication, we, as ordinary people, should perhaps cherish the simplicity, innocence and the philosophy of life contained in the play from the ancient roads of the countryside.

At the same time, we seem to be able to get insights from our uncles and aunts in the dispute over "sad and happy birthdays", that is, to let go of our own obsessions, to perceive the difficulties of others, to dissolve the barriers with the most sincere feelings, and to guard our homeland with altruistic love.

(Author Affilications:Jimei University)