From the seaside of Qinhuangdao to the Magic City Theater, in the sad café created by Meng Jinghui, where is the "triangle of love" going

That spring at the age of 30, she fell hopelessly in love with a bastard demon king who opened a sad and crazy café for him; another he returned from prison and brought her a kiss and a knife, three lonely people trying to fight fate through love.

One of the most watched works at last year's inaugural Aranya Theatre Festival, Meng Jinghui's theatrical work "Song of the Sad Cafe", which departed from the seaside and will be performed three times in a row at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center from March 4 to 6, which is also the first time that the works of American female writer Carson McCullers have been put on the Chinese theater stage.

Loneliness is a distinctive undertone in Carson McCullers's work, and as an important female writer of the American "Southern Renaissance", her strong personal style and vivid depictions of marginal figures have made McCullers occupy an important place in contemporary literary history. The Song of the Sad Cafe is a 1951 novella by McCullers.

Li Wenjun, the first translator to bring McCullers into the eyes of the Chinese people, once said of the encounter with Mychles - "At that time, I often saw McCullers's name in the American literary press, I went to the library of the Institute of Literature to borrow her books, and found "Song of the Sad Cafe", which had only one name on the library, which was Qian ZhongShu. I think that since Qian Zhongshu borrowed this book, there must be a reason for him to borrow it. Afterwards, I also asked Qian Zhongshu why he paid attention to McCullers, and he said lightly, 'She's fine.'" ”

Set against the backdrop of a hot, remote, dead-quiet southern town, "The Song of the Sad Cafe" revolves around the deformed love triangle of Emilia, Marcy, and Lemon, and people who try to use love as an antidote are trapped in a greater loneliness. In McCullers's view, love is something that the giver himself cannot control and is lonely and deep. Meng Jinghui, who has always been good at depicting love and loneliness, has integrated the connotation of the works of hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, Salinger, Carver and other giants of modern and contemporary world literature in the adaptation.

The fragments of Chekhov's "Seagull" hidden in the main story make unexpected changes in the rhythm of the play. When Chekhov's "Seagull" enters Emilia's dream, Chekhov and McCullers miraculously meet in the play "Song of the Sad Cafe"—their Emilia and Nina, who choose between loving and being loved.

"Putting in the Seagull clip is not only a tribute to Chekov, but also because 'Song of the Sad Cafe' and 'Seagull' are about a woman and two men, and the two form an intertextual beauty." Meng Jinghui explained it this way.

Huang Xiangli, who played Bai Yunsheng in Lou Ye's film "Lyceum Grand Theatre", has 11 years of performance experience in more than 2,000 stage plays. Known as the "Queen of One-Man Drama", she played the heroine Emilia in "Song of the Sad Cafe", ushering in the challenge of the opponent actors - the dirty and ugly Li Meng was played by the young actor Sun Yucheng; Wu Zhoukai, who switched between the two fields of film and television drama, participated in Meng Jinghui's "Opinions on the Life of Two Dogs" and "Soft", and played the cynical young villain MaXi in "The Song of the Sad Cafe".

What will happen when the stage comes from the seaside to the city, when all this happens in a closed indoor theater? Meng Jinghui said, "The blowing of the sea breeze, the real smell of coffee, and the immersion of music have created a stage that is difficult to replicate during the premiere. Back indoors, fun props and dances are all there. ”

The choreography and lighting design of "Song of the Sad Cafe" was created by stage designer Zhang Wu and lighting designer Wang Qi based on Meng's aesthetic. The house expresses reality, the fish symbolizes the dream, and the hand symbolizes the ideal. In the stage-like installation, a giant hand stands on the golden section of the stage, three houses are placed on the edges of the stage, and fish are imprisoned in the building. As Chekhov's portrait sweeps over the viewer's head, 30,000 ocean balls pour down, and in the limited and infinite space of the theater, the surreal atmosphere weaves the heartbreaking café.

"The Song of the Sad Cafe" premiered four times in Aranya and had three different endings. Back in the theater, the story will come to a different conclusion. Meng Jinghui sold a guanzi, "The similarity between the seaside version and the theater version is that it is just as wonderful." ”

Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Shi Chenlu

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Source: Author: Shi Chenlu