Beijing Renyi is the highest temple of drama performance, and it is the brightest pearl in this temple.
He is the most outstanding drama performance master in China in the twentieth century, and in the past few decades of art, he has created countless classic images and created an insurmountable peak of Chinese drama art.
The plays he has participated in and created, each of which can be called an immortal masterpiece in the Chinese drama industry.
The four words "God of Drama" are well deserved, so tonight, I want to talk to you about the story of this.
01
So he was born in 1927 in Tangshan, Hebei Province, and his father served as a battalion commander in Zhang Xueliang's army and has been fighting outside. It was just one hundred days after his birth that the bad news came that his father had died on the front line.
Since then, the orphans and widows have lived on each other. Her mother took her to Beijing and found shelter in a large courtyard outside xihua gate. Relying on the repair of the seams and the financial support of relatives, she gritted her teeth and sent her to school, and her life was very difficult.
Although the family did not give enough support, it was clear that learning was his only way out, so he was diligent and eager to learn.
But fate does not seem to be kind to this bumpy teenager, so he just finished junior high school, his relatives were forced to cut off the funding due to accidents, and he had to leave school to work and learn to survive in the cracks of society.
Although life is difficult, the eagerness to learn has not subsided at all. He often worked during the day, picked up the lights at night and read at night, and spent almost all his time outside of work on studying.
Just then, an opportunity crept in. So a few of his friends heard about his experience and sympathized with him. So he was mixed with fu jen university, a higher institution of higher learning at that time, and he was given a chance to observe by chance.
The rich and colorful life in the university also opened his eyes. Soon, he met a group of college students. At their strong invitation, the outgoing and cheerful joined a school amateur theater troupe.
What everyone did not expect was that the first stage of the stage had a very good performance. This made him feel confident and he began to seriously think about acting.
At the age of 18, he was recommended by his relatives to enter the troupe, and successively participated in plays such as "Leading by Example", "Peacock Bile", "Under the Eaves of Shanghai" and other plays, officially opening his theater career.
In 1949, he joined the North China People's Cultural and Labor Troupe, which was also known as the Beijing People's Art Theater, which is commonly known as the art of the elderly.
In 1951, the premiere of "Longsugou", director Jiao Juyin almost racked his brains in order to find the most suitable candidate for this drama. One day, he went to the "Old Man's Art" to watch a performance and was deeply attracted by the stage. In this way, he became the protagonist of this drama.
So zhi played the protagonist Cheng Crazy in the play, but there was no detailed description of Cheng Crazy in the script. So he spent a long time brewing tea houses, looking for information, chatting with folk artists, and finally played this upright, kind, and cowardly Cheng crazy man who won the hearts of the people, and people said that he played Cheng Crazy to the end and acted out.
02
The successful performance of "Longsugou" made the then 23-year-old popular all over the country. But it didn't take long for him to encounter "Waterloo" on this stage.
In June 1954, "Thunderstorm", as an excellent play of Beijing Renyi, was first performed, and at that time, peers in the theater industry were very concerned about it, but the performance in the play was extremely disappointing.
So later, he wrote in his essay, "Cheng Madman succeeded, and then Zhou Ping of "Thunderstorm", who failed miserably, enough to see that the actor cannot be proud."
In 1957, he accidentally saw the famous book "Camel Xiangzi", in which the image of the rickshaw puller brought his memory back to when he was in the Courtyard, and there was an old uncle Hao pulling a cart next to him.
To this end, a three-thousand-word application was made, hoping to persuade the director to let him play the role. He seems to have found the strong creative desire he had when he played "Cheng Crazy" in the "old horse".
It is precisely because of this perseverance that an old horse who has experienced many vicissitudes of foreign coachman finally appeared on the stage, and he also became another classic image after "Cheng Crazy".
03
In the Spring Festival of 1958, the successful performance of Mr. Lao She's script "Tea House" caused a great sensation. Cao Yu, director of Beijing Renyi, once said, "'The Tea House' is an immortal legend in the history of Chinese drama, so he is the person who wrote this legend."
"Tea House" is a drama that interprets the style of China's feudal society to the extreme, in this long river of decaying history, there is no so-called "personal destiny", because "fate" has been completely determined by the times and society, and individual efforts are meaningless.
So in it, He played Wang Lifa, the tea house keeper, who was the soul of the whole play. He is shrewd and capable, and he is sleek left and right, but in the end he cannot avoid becoming a tragedy.
Second Master Qin was determined to save the country, vigorously developed industry, longed for national awakening, and was ambitious and ambitious, but in the end it fell to bankruptcy.
There is also the fourth master who has a bold personality and is self-reliant after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. These three characters run through the whole scene, portraying the changes of the times into three points.
At first, the ending of "The Tea House" is not what we see now, and later in the process of arrangement, he took the initiative to make suggestions, hoping to see the three protagonists' perceptions of life at the end. In this way, "The Tea House" became what we see today.
After the premiere, the incessant applause from the audience proved that it was right. Mr. Lao She was very excited after watching the play, and when he returned home, he immediately took out a pen and paper, and wrote with a big hand that "those who work hard as they are, succeed in their success", in praise of the wonderful performance.
So after receiving these words, he locked it into the drawer without a word, a lock was 30 years, and then in order to preserve the banner for a long time, when he took it to the decoration, he took it out for everyone to see. This is the consistent way of dealing with the world, no matter how high the achievements are still low-key and unobtrusive.
In September 1980, as a classic of Chinese drama, "Tea House" was invited to Europe for a tour, which was the first time that Chinese drama crossed the country, which was of great significance.
When performing in West Germany, the enthusiasm of the audience was greatly unexpected. The theater was packed with people. Even after the actors left the stage after the performance, the audience refused to leave. The audience all stood up, shouting and clapping, shouting and shouting.
In terms of reports, "The Tea House" has been hailed as "a miracle on the oriental stage". They were even more approving of the performance, with some saying, "I almost held my breath while watching the performance."
The last time he stood on stage as Wang Lifa was in 1992, the year that marked the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Beijing People's Art Theatre.
At that time, he was 65 years old, and due to physical reasons, he had not performed on stage for a long time before, and his memory was not as good as before. For him, both physical and mental strength are somewhat inadequate.
Although his face twitched incessantly and his mouth could no longer control what he wanted to say, he insisted on performing on stage. Because he knew that most of the audience came to him, and he didn't want to disappoint you.
For this "Tea House" singing, all the audiences were full of infinite expectations, at that time, there were many people who bought tickets, and some audiences queued up all night in order to buy a ticket, just to say goodbye to it seriously.
That day on the stage, he looked calm, accompanied by sonorous music, and he began this parting performance.
At first, everything was as usual, even if the age was rare, so it was still calm, whether it was the expression or the action was very in place, the audience saw it more breathlessly, afraid of missing anywhere.
Suddenly, it was a trance. He looked at Chang Siye, played by Zheng Rong, his mouth was squirming, but he couldn't scream at all. At this moment, he was so anxious that even his hands and feet trembled.
Therefore, he attached so much importance to this parting performance, but he did not want to forget the name of the character at the critical moment. This time, he was so proud on the stage, but this time he bowed his head deeply in shame.
So he forgot how he finally went backstage, he only remembered that when he came to the center of the stage, his heart was full of shame and self-blame.
At that time, the audience shouted a sentence of "So the teacher said goodbye", a simple eight words, but the tears of the people offstage were scattered like broken beads, which included the audience's highest respect for this veteran actor with a fifty-year acting career.
Amid the audience's incessant applause and shouts, the 65-year-old bowed and choked up to "thank the audience for their tolerance." When he left the stage, his heart was full of regret and reluctance, and the stage occupied almost his entire life.
Afterwards, so zhi also wrote an article to apologize to the audience, humble and simple four words, is his most authentic portrayal of life.
For an actor who integrates the stage into his life, the most painful thing is that he can't act, so he tries to return to the stage many times.
05
Later, in the drama "Ice Sugar Gourd", the nearly seventy-year-old then overcame many difficulties and once again appeared on the stage of the Capital Theatre. This was his last appearance on stage.
So he just made a cameo appearance in one of the characters, with only a dozen lines, and each line was only a few words. However, during rehearsals, he often forgot his lines or misremembered them, and rehearsed for more than an hour for several minutes before barely completing them.
Seeing that everyone's time was delayed, he said excitedly, "I'm really old... Otherwise, the rehearsal would have been completed long ago, and I was also in a hurry, what can I do, I am really sorry for everyone."
Zhu Lin, who was acting with him, saw this look and couldn't help but burst into tears. He used to be alive on stage, and now he can't even remember a few lines, which is a great irony.
Later, in an interview, Zhu Lin said, "Once she forgot where to get off the stage, which made her very uncomfortable and had mixed feelings in her heart."
After the performance of "Sugar Gourd", it completely ended the stage life. ”
Life is like a drama, on the night of January 20, 2013, it left us forever.
So he used his sincerity and kindness to go through his life. He has been an artist for decades and has received numerous honors. But on his business card, there are no titles such as various identities, only a few simple words, "actor is then.".
So he is an actor and a great drama artist that thousands of drama actors want to become. His death represents the end of an era, but his spirit will influence generations and pass it on forever.