Winter 1948
The Chiang family dynasty was in turmoil and was in internal and external difficulties. The Central Plains Field Army and the East China Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, with Xuzhou as the center, conducted a strategic offensive campaign against the Kuomintang army, known in history as the "Battle of Huaihai". This was the campaign in which the liberation war annihilated the largest number of enemies, and it was also the one in which the PLA suffered the heaviest sacrifices, had the greatest political impact, and had the most complicated war style.
Our army has entered a strategic counteroffensive, and reports of success in major battlefields have been frequently reported. On the land of Jianghuai, the cold wind is cold, the snow is full of sky, a great decisive battle to determine the fate of China is about to be staged, and the Northwest Army is also facing a life-and-death decision, and the original drama "Winter 1948" of the National Centre for the Performing Arts has begun.
When the curtain opens, it is the world that speaks
Relive the history and show the people's hearts and minds
On October 21, the curtain opened on the drama "Winter 1948" (formerly known as "Choice"). The play is an original play created by the National Centre for the Performing Arts in 2019 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 2021, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the National Centre for the Performing Arts once again gathered the main creative team to refine and polish the script, stage vision and secondary creation of the play, reliving the great historical journey of the Communist Party of China on the stage, and feeling the power of faith and the great national spirit.
In this round of performances, the famous actors Wu Jing'an, Hong Tao, Zong Ping, Yin Shixian, Liu Dawei and other actors, together with the National Centre for the Performing Arts drama actors Liu Wenyi, Dong Hongchuan, Feng Yang and other outstanding young actors, enthusiastically interpreted the group portraits of the characters who fought in blood to seek the road to save the country and save the people, leading the audience back to the revolutionary years of passion during the Liberation War in 1948.
On the stage, the "Four Brothers in the Northwest", played by Wu Jing'an, Hong Tao, Zong Ping and Yin Shixian, imitated the "Liu Guanzhang" of the Three Kingdoms during the Northern Expedition, worshiped as brothers with different surnames, vowed to save the country and save the people, and live and die together. They led this unit to form a large knife team in the Great Wall War of Resistance against the Japanese Army, and fired the first shot of the national war of resistance in the famous Lugou Bridge Defense Battle. They were also deeply loved by the Chinese people, and many brothers and patriotic soldiers fought in blood and sacrificed their lives on the battlefield. The fall of Beiping and Tianjin one after another, the advance of the Japanese army step by step, the defeat and retreat of Chiang Kai-shek's army, the loss of a large part of the country, and the displacement of the people all made them heartbroken, and they were struggling to find a way to save the country and save the people...
"What a big wind, such a big snow, this is the snowiest winter since the meteorological records in Jianghuai, and on this winter day, I will hand over the answer sheet to the people."
A fierce battle has just ended, in the face of the unstoppable strength of the People's Liberation Army, and the Kuomintang Central Army's view of the wall, where should the more than 20,000 soldiers of the Northwest Army caught in the middle of it go? From high-ranking generals, middle- and lower-ranking officers to ordinary soldiers, the military was demoralized and demoralized. Their families are also suffering... Is it cannon fodder or to the light? Everyone has to make a final choice...
The wind and snow, the fierce gunfire, the white horses that roared by, the women and children accompanying the army, the soldiers who were uneasy on the position, everyone's heart was surging with thousands of wind and snow.
The people's liberation army leaflets fell in the camp, and the people's hearts and minds were full of light and hope. On the stage of "steel and iron bones", these bloody men in the northwest military camps, or drumming and firing guns, shouting "save the country and save the people, suffering together", staged the grand ambition and pride of overthrowing the imperial system; or brandished a large knife, roaring "Rather than being a ghost in battle than a slave to the country", showing the iron bones of the bloody anti-Japanese resistance. Today, they are in a hurry, panicked, and do not want to be ridiculed by the people as a "scraping party" anymore. They also yearn for a new life in the Liberated Areas where "the fire burns hot ass, eats well and burps up well."
Zhang Yufeng, played by Wu Jing'an, is an underground member of the Communist Party of China who has been lurking in the ministry to secretly plot an uprising in the line of fire. "Don't be a ghost of civil war injustice, looking for a way to live in front of you", Zhang Yufeng could not bear to let his former brother who was born and died be a martyrdom of the Chiang family dynasty, and he was even more reluctant to let the family members of the Northwest Army be sent to Nanjing as hostages and restrained by others. Zhang Yufeng and Zhao Mengsheng, a communist who "went to the meeting with a single knife," joined forces with each other and actively instigated in the army to jointly stage a big drama in order to relieve the worries of the generals of the rebel army.
"China is undergoing a great change that has not been seen in three thousand years, and Yu Feng can do something for this great change, so that China can be reborn, so that the brethren will go to the light, and it is not hesitate to sacrifice their personal lives."
On the eve of the decisive battle, the situation changed rapidly, and life and death hung on the line. "It will make a sound that shakes the mountains and rivers, and people wear armor and saddles." In Zhang Yufeng's Qin voice, the moment of decisive battle came, and he and his third brother Zheng Yihu led the rebel army to wear military uniforms, wear white handkerchiefs on their arms, open the avenue for the People's Liberation Army to pass through the defensive zone, tear open a defensive line for the great decisive battle, disrupt the entire deployment of the Kuomintang, open the magnificent prelude to the great armageddon that shocked China and foreign countries, and destroyed an old era.
As the commander of the eldest brother, Ma Ze'an, in a decisive way of self-judgment, sadly parted from the times. Only the stubborn old Zhou Keren parted ways with his brothers, like a dog that lost his family, and threatened Zhao Mengsheng and Zhang Yufeng's wife and daughter to flee south.
"The new country we are going to go to with our lives is about to break ground!" Under the banner of Wan zhan, Zhang Yufeng strides toward the founding ceremony, and New China comes to us in the thunderous salute.
"This is a story from the collapse of the old era to the rise of new China. Suffering in winter, confused in the wind and snow, waking up at the time of thawing, walking towards new life in the spring light. Looking back at the life and death choices in the iron-blooded years of 1948, remembering the martyrs and paying tribute to the heroes! ”
——"Winter 1948" director Gong Xiaodong
Gong Xiaodong, the director of the play, admitted that this drama "Winter 1948" has a rare tough guy temperament on the stage today, not only the publicity of male hormones, but also the hardcore aura of Mars.
The all-metal mechanical devices on the stage provide a very special view for the audience: more than a dozen mechanical platforms crisscross, flip up and down, or tilt, or towering, like a "metal cube" freely arranged and combined, cut into different performance areas, showing the golden iron horses in the beacon years, and the momentum is dazzling. The stage set wrapped in wire relief nets places the characters in the play between high walls and barriers, showing the situation where the northwest army is like trapped beasts in cages, running into walls and having no way out.
As the stage constantly rotates and flips, the characters in the play wander between the rotating steel frame structures, time flows freely, and space switches freely. The design of the ups and downs of the stage installation is also in line with the ups and downs of the fate of the characters in the play, and the stars shift and the bucket predict the end of an old era and the rise of a new China.
After the performance, the audience commented: "This is a very powerful play, very shocking, but also very touching." Especially in the role of Zhang Yufeng, he has a lot of shadows of the revolutionary generals of our party, and his mental journey is very complicated, and he can feel the difficulty of being an underground party member on the battlefield behind enemy lines. Some viewers also said: "The stage this time is very shocking, very cold, there are bones, and it is very compatible with the title of "Winter 1948". This play also allows us to relive the history of the Huaihai Campaign of the Liberation War, and the image of these revolutionary heroes of the Communists who are not afraid of life and death and firmly believe can be called the backbone of the nation. ”
The wonderful performance of the drama "Winter 1948" will last until the 26th, welcome to click "Read the Original Article" to enter the official website of the National Centre for the Performing Arts to buy tickets and watch the performance!
National Centre for the Performing Arts Original Drama "Winter 1948"
(Formerly known as "Choice")
Performance dates: October 21-24, 26, 2021
Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts, Theatre
Producer: National Centre for the Performing Arts
Production: National Centre for the Performing Arts
Performance: National Centre for the Performing Arts Drama Cast
Producer: Wang Ning
Consultant: Chen Ping
Artistic Director: Xu Xiaozhong
Chief producer: Li Zhixiang, Zhao Tiechun, Zhu Jing, Wang Cheng, Gong Jicheng
Director system: Zhao Tiechun
Screenwriter: Li Baoqun
Director: Gong Xiaodong
Stage Design: Zhang Wu
Lighting design: Xing Xin
Clothing, makeup design: Ding Jiyan
Composer: Li Hui
Prop design: Jin Jifeng
Body Design: Li Na
Sound design: Hu Songtao
Sound Design: Chen Tao
Cast information
Zhang Yufeng: Wu Jing'an
Ma Zean: Hong Tao
Zhou Keren: Zong Ping
Zheng Yihu: Yin Shixian
Han Xiaoyu: Liu Wenyi*
Zhao Mengsheng: Liu Dawei
Hu Dakui, Qing Dynasty official: Wu Song*
Flower Branches: Liu Xiaowen*
Hu Bahuan: Liu Beibei*
Female Adjutant: Wang Wenjie*
Old Horse Head, Qing Dynasty Official: Dong Hongchuan*
Dayang, Qing Dynasty official: Fengyang*
Erdan, Qing Dynasty official, officer: Ma Qinglong
Palace daughter and family member: Yao Dingzhi*
*Labeled as an actor of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Drama Cast
Copywriter: Guo Yingying
Photography: Niu Xiaobei, Ling Feng
Edit: Gao Jian