It was between three lonely people
A mysterious and absurd love story
Based on the novel by the genius writer McCullers
Meng Jinghui is another dramatic masterpiece
"Queen of One-Man Show" Huang Xiangli led the way
The opening of the first Aranya Theatre Festival
Romantic, mysterious, absurd
4-6 March
"The Song of the Sad Cafe"
I invite you to witness the loneliness that flows
Meng Jinghui's theatrical works
THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE
Show times
5/6, 5/5 March 2022, 7:15 p.m.
Sunday, March 6, 2022 2:00 p.m.
place
Shanghai Oriental Art Center Opera Hall
fare
680/480/380/280/180 yuan
*Children under 1.2 meters of this show are not allowed
**Late arrivals are not allowed until about 10 minutes after the show starts
01
There are lovers in the world
There are also loved ones
These are two very different types of people
This is a mysterious and absurd love story between three lonely people...
"That spring at the age of 30, she fell incredibly in love with a sad homeless man who loved to cry under the influence of alcohol and moonlight."
"She pleased him, indulged him, became infatuated with him, and opened a lively café for this bastard demon king—a sad, insane café with a grand piano."
A handsome and evil wanderer walked into the café. He brought the woman a snuff bottle, a kiss and a sharp knife. ”
"Returning from prison, the poison wafting, waking up in a dream, the love triangle highlighted, the light and shadow longing, the crowd was indignant, and these three lovers launched a thrilling duel..."
She loved him, he loved her, he loved him. In the lively café are lonely lovers and loved ones.
02
Legendary godmother of literature and art
Snoop on the wonders of the mind
Chekhov stirred up the literary tsunami
The Song of the Sad Cafe is based on McCullers' classic novel of the same name. She was a legendary godmother of literature and art along with Duras and one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. Her works have influenced Qian Zhongshu, Su Tong, Jung and other people inside and outside the literary world.
Loneliness is an inescapable gene of human beings, and McCullers's fifty years of life have been accompanied by loneliness, and what she writes about is an inner temperament that everyone has. Her loneliness is not the blandness and dead silence from beginning to end, but lets the reader find that only the inevitable loneliness remains for a long time after the hustle and bustle, absurdity, absurdity, love and being loved.
On the basis of the original text, the stage play "Song of the Sad Cafe" also integrates the spiritual treasures of Hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, Salinger, Carver and other giants of modern and contemporary world literature.
The insertion of the "Seagull" fragment is Meng Jinghui's tribute to Chekhov. At one-third of the play, Seagull takes an unexpected turn for the rhythm of the play. The heroine Huang Xiangli changed into a dazzling red dress, the stage was also stained with blood by the lights, and the absurd crowd poured into the line of sight.
03
Light and shadow awaken the dream of fate
Metaphorical stage
Bury the lonely code
This is the second collaboration between the well-known German new media artist Golem KlonVIII and director Meng Jinghui, who can always flexibly draw knowledge of social sciences, psychology, stone carving art and new media art, and perfectly integrate artistic inspiration with algorithmic language.
In the creation of "Song of the Sad Cafe", Golem KlonVIII uses humanoid elements, geometric forms, and "life games" to allude to misplaced reality, and uses algorithmic particles to express the unconscious operation of the "collective brain".
Stage designer Zhang Wu and lighting designer Wang Qi are both old partners of Meng Jinghui. Every cooperation with Meng Jinghui is their new experiment and breakthrough. Wang Qi's lighting design rarely has figurative content, more abstract, exaggerated, concise but powerful, lighting is the carrier of emotions he spews out.
Does a big hand smooth everything out, or does it erase loneliness? Abstract elements first enhance the tension of the dramatic expression, and second, they extend invitations to the audience. On the stage of "Song of the Sad Cafe", Zhang Wu once again brought the audience to the stage through stage design, beyond the soul, reflecting and awakening himself from a different time and space.
04
Zhang Weiwei subverts the musical imagination
Huang Xiangli, Sun Yucheng and Wu Zhoukai broke through the performance
Huang Xiangli, the "queen of one-man shows", Sun Yucheng, a frequent visitor to overseas drama festivals, and Wu Zhoukai, who switches between the two fields of film and television drama, co-starred together, through the abstract performance forms of improvised limbs, national language recitation, and black comedy expression, so that this strange story surged in restraint and released energy under suppression.
The performances of the youngest group of actors in Meng Jinghui's drama studio are also stunning, their energetic, rough and full of vitality, creating a more crazy and eerie texture for the lonely abyss of "Song of the Sad Cafe".
Music has always been an indispensable artistic element in Meng Jinghui's aesthetic expression.
This time, Meng Jinghui once again cooperated with independent musician Zhang Weiwei to bring the rhythm of "Song of the Sad Cafe" to the audience's heartbeat through the composite beat of five and seven beats. The huge span of instruments, languages, and melodies give the drama an unusually lonely, mysterious, and unknown texture.
The imagination of the lonely always shines brightly
The love of the lonely cannot escape fragmentation
The giant hands on the stage stood for a long time
The song of sadness has long been played fatally
Walk into the Shanghai Oriental Art Center
Feel the purity and absurdity of love
The passion and loneliness of love
*The pictures in this article are stills of past performances, photo: Liu Xuanyi, Zhang Fan, Liang Zhenzhen
"Song of the Sad Cafe" promotional video
Creator
Original: Carson McCullers (U.S.)
Screenwriter: Wang Hao
Director: Meng Jinghui
Music: Zhang Weiwei
Stage Design: Zhang Wu
Lighting design: Wang Qi
Multimedia Design: Golem Klon VIII
Sound coordinator: Huashan
Stage Supervisor/Costume Design: Yu Lei
Makeup design: Luo Yuan
Body Design: Chen Xinping
actor
Huang Xiangli, Sun Yucheng, Wu Zhoukai
Ling Dandan, Wu You, Wang Shuo
Zhang Chi, Li Jiayu and so on
*Lineup is subject to availability