After 14 months of leaving the theater, Seven Acts of Life landed on SAIC Shanghai Culture Square with the Chinese version of the Broadway musical "Almost Normal", which was performed from March 4 to 21.
"Near Normal" has received 11 nominations for the Tony Award, the highest award for American theater, and also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. But in 2012, when Yang Jiamin, CEO of Seven Acts of Life, came up with the idea of bringing it to the Chinese stage, he hesitated.
"There is no popularity in the country, and it is even difficult to define its audience, after all, who cares about the tragic life of a middle-aged woman?"
The protagonist of the play, Diana, suffers from bipolar disorder, that is, bipolar disorder, and a serious mental illness affects the family of four. Life is nearly normal, but the rift is spreading in the dark. Will such a subject matter be too heavy?
Until 2018, Yang Jiamin felt for the first time that she could try to put it into a small theater, because in the past 6 years, she found that Chinese was no longer an avoidant state for psychological problems, and more and more people dared to discuss and face it.
This year, Seven Acts of Life brought the Chinese version of "Almost Normal" to Chinese audiences for the first time and received numerous praises. After three years, the Chinese version of "Almost Normal" returned and upgraded into the Grand Theater, which not only gathered many outstanding musical theater actors, but also joined by new artists such as Wu Jiacheng, Xu Junshuo, and Duan Aojuan.
Almost normal is enough
"I don't need everything to work normally – that's incredible. As long as it's nearly normal, I can. "When Natalie, the daughter of the play, sang this song to her mother Diana, many people in the audience were quietly wiping away tears." It was sadistic, and it was very healing, and I couldn't stop crying. One audience member said.
In order to play a mentally ill patient on the stage, Diana's actor Zhu Fu interviewed many patients with related cases. "I couldn't understand them before, but you've really been up close and personal, and when you look at the world from their perspective, you'll find yourself very narrow. Why are they manic and depressed because they are more sensitive to the world. ”
When "Almost Normal" premiered in 2018, several spectators stood at the exit of the theater waiting for Zhu Fu, saying that they had suffered as much as Diana. "When they look back later, they will find that they have redeemed themselves." There may also be friends and family to help, but to really get out of the bottom, or rely on their own strength. ”
Gao Yuchen plays his son Gabu in the play, who is also the "lesion" in the heart of his mother Diana. "I don't want her to take pills and treatments, I don't want her to forget me because of it. I was like the other side of my mother's heart, wanting to heal, but not wanting to heal, very entangled, very pulling state. ”
Lu Qingyi, the director of the documentary "Four Springs", filmed a short documentary of the same name for "Almost Normal", through understanding the living conditions of patients with bipolar disorder, focusing on how they can do their best to restore a "normal" life, and listening to their cognition of different dimensions of life. Lu Qingyi said: "Perhaps, this musical is not just a story about a sick family, but a story of how every ordinary family copes after suffering a blow." ”
A rollercoaster-like emotional experience
The 2021 Chinese edition of Near Normal is a replica of the Broadway version of the live band. In addition to rock standard guitar and bass, it is more into string music, using violin and cello to depict delicate emotions. There are both explosive rock styles and rich and delicate arrangements.
Heart-pounding real-life stories, rollercoaster-like emotional experiences, find an outlet in the heart-warming rock music. In the first half, when his son Gabu performed the dynamic "I Exist", the audience seemed to be in the scene of a rock concert. When Gabe ascended to the center of the four-story stereoscopic stage and shouted the last sentence "I exist" with a beautiful high-pitched shout, the live band pushed the atmosphere to a climax.
"Most people define music as 'good,' but the music in Near Normal is not." Music director Zhao Jiyun said, "It is very real, very realistic. The mental activity of the characters in the play, you can't see, but it makes you feel it in an auditory way. ”
In order to adapt to the coliseum, this year's choreography is larger in size and visual, more full and rich. The intricate staircase on the four-story three-dimensional stage constitutes the world in the eyes of mother Diana, and also hints at the direction of everyone in the family. Stage design Liu Qiwei said that the story of this drama is very painful, and hopes to dissolve the audience's sense of sadness through the stage, highlight the cool effect of the concert scene, coupled with the lively return, so that everyone can go home with a healed mood.
After "Almost Normal" hit the first shot, this year and next year, seven acts of life and a series of intensive production plans: "Q Avenue" familiar to Shanghai audiences will appear with a new look and a new cross-border cooperation; "I, Don Quixote" will usher in an upgraded version of the tenth anniversary; "Matilda", which once set off a storm in China, will also produce Chinese version, and now children and adult actors are being selected.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Zhang Yi Photo Editor: Zi Xi
Source: Author: Wu Tong