The Paper's reporter Pan Yu
The Chongzhen Emperor wore a suit and played golf with his ministers.
The story takes place in the fifth year of Daming Chongzhen, that is, around 1632 AD, starting from the historical "Battle of The Great Ling River", a series of events such as the strong enemy outside Guanwai, the gradual study of the West and the East, the party struggle at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Wuqiao Mutiny, etc. alternately unfolded, and the turbulent History of the Ming Dynasty was gradually presented on the stage in this way.
Drama "Five Years of Daming Chongzhen"
A few days ago, the original drama "Five Years of Daming Chongzhen" made its first segment appearance in the China Grand Theatre. This film brings together the creative forces of many young theaters and presents historical themes in the form of a contemporary theatrical stage. From August 27 to August 29, the play will premiere at the China Grand Theatre in Shanghai.
"Five Years of Daming Chongzhen" was born out of the first "Micro Drama Online Invitation Exhibition" of the China Grand Theatre. In 2020, excerpts premiered on the stage of The China Grand Theatre, were filmed in high definition and publicly released online, and received incubation support from the China Grand Theatre.
Stills from "Five Years of Daming Chongzhen"
The creators of this drama are all new forces on the Shanghai theater stage. Screenwriter Xu Jingbo graduated from the History Department of Fudan University with a Ph.D. and is now teaching at Soochow University. At the beginning of its creation, the script received project funding from the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation and the approval of the National Cultural Development Fund.
When introducing his creative path, he said that as a historian, he read Guo Moruo's full set of historical dramas during a vacation during his college years, thus opening the road to historical drama creation. At that time, when he was in Shanghai, he also thought that there are so many historical stories and characters in Shanghai, can they all be written in theatrical works. This includes Xu Guangqi, one of the protagonists of this play: "Xu Guangqi is called the first 'Shanghainese' in the modern sense, and he is also the 'first person of Sino-Western exchange', and I was wondering if I could write his story." Xu Jingbo thus took chongzhen's five years as the starting point and Xu Guangqi, who had entered the twilight of his life, as the starting point, showing that he promoted the study of the west and the east in various disturbances, and found a way out for the country.
The director of the play, Li Mengze, graduated from the Directing Department of the Shanghai Theater Academy, studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and is now the director of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, which is also the first grand theater performance he directed. Deeply influenced by British theatre culture, Lee hopes to express history in another way. In this drama, there is no historical costume, and the actors are dressed in modern costumes, interpreting historical stories in a very abstract and freehand space. Behind the seemingly historical story, there are also many connections and mappings with the current world.
In Li Mengze's view, "all history is contemporary history", and all creations should be related to the real life of the audience, which is also an important basis for the work to move closer to modernity from narrative, performance and aesthetics, and therefore, many contemporary hot events, era marks and symbols are interspersed in this play.
Compared with the young choreographer, there is no shortage of old drama bones in the cast of this drama. Drama Plum Blossom Award winner and veteran actor Kang Aishi played Xu Guangqi in the play, he said that he usually performs more TV dramas, and it is meaningful to interpret historical dramas in this way. "What it's about is not about clothing, about dynasties, about how people get along."
In addition, several powerful actors on the drama stage also played important roles in the play, Ren Shan starred as Shangshu Xiong Mingyu of the Bingbu, and Jiang Ke played the "Donglin Party member" Ni Yuanlu. The young "Chongzhen Emperor" is played by Tang Yize, a young actor studying at Donghua University, and four young actors such as Wang Xiahaozhe, Lu Weilong, Feng Guanqing and Liu Yuhang also participate in the performance of the whole play.
Wei Jiayi, the producer of the play, said that as a theater media person observing the industry for nearly a decade, "original" in his view is the eternal vitality of the theater stage. Especially in the state of continuous impact of the epidemic, we should turn our attention more to the local creative force. With the support of the China Grand Theatre and the first producer of the play, Mofan Consulting, he chose to put the original script "Five Years of Daming Chongzhen" on the stage. After more than a year of creative preparation and nearly two months of rehearsals, I also hope that the pure original "Five Years of Daming Chongzhen" will arouse the repercussions of all parties on the Shanghai theater stage.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang