Literary classics, how to stand on the stage

Peking Opera "Qingyi"

How to achieve a positive interaction between literary IP and stage art? How to grasp the core code of secondary creation and put the essence of literature on the stage?

In recent years, Jiangsu stages and classic literary works have frequently sparked "sparks", and a number of literary classics have been innovatively transformed and presented on the Jiangsu stage in three dimensions in the form of dramas, children's dramas, and operas. The diversified artistic presentation makes people feel the strong vitality of literary classics from another angle, and also provides more possibilities for stage creation.

Masterpieces emerge one after another, and literary "traffic" injects vitality into the stage

Peking opera "Qingyi", dance drama "Dream of the Red Chamber", children's drama "Bronze Sunflower", drama "Human World", Kunqu opera "The World Speaks New Language"... On the stage of Jiangsu, the adaptation of literary works has become a common practice in recent years. These stage works have not only achieved artistic innovations and breakthroughs, but also presented in them with a flexible and open narrative perspective, vivid and vivid character images, and modern stage styles, all of which bring the audience a new aesthetic experience beyond literature.

In the past five years, the Jiangsu Grand Theatre has set its "sights" on a number of literary classics - Bi Feiyu's "Qingyi", Huang Beijia's "Wild Beet Flying", the central propaganda department's "Five One Project" award-winning work "Because of Daddy" and one of the four masterpieces of Chinese classical classics, "Dream of the Red Chamber". Although they are both novels, the forms of artistic transformation of several works are very different. "'Qingyi' was adapted into Peking Opera because it created the artistic image of 'drama idiot' Xiao Yanqiu; the story of 'Wild Bee Flying' was novel and moving, and was adapted into a stage play to fully highlight its plot advantages; 'Because Of Daddy' tells the growth process of the martyr's orphans and is emotionally moving, so it was adapted into a vocal suite; 'Dream of the Red Chamber' had already had the 1987 version of the TV series, the classic Yue opera and other 'pearls and jade in front', so we tried to interpret it in the form of dance drama and found a new path to the classic masterpiece." Liao Yi, general manager of Jiangsu Grand Theater, told reporters.

In Liao Yi's view, different artistic ideas determine different forms of adaptation, and the good feedback received by these plays in the market just shows that profound literature has given stage art a huge charm. "Classic literature and the stage complement each other and help each other. Classic literary works have been adapted into stage plays, and with their strong appeal, they have greatly driven the enthusiasm of the performance market and become a 'traffic' that attracts the audience. The stage works have realized the promotion of literary works through the excavation of the inner spirit of literature. ”

"Textual travel from literature to stage is the transition from abstract time and space to figurative time and space. The time and space capacity of the stage is often limited, but the storyline is more condensed, the dramatic conflict is more concentrated, the relationship between the characters is clearer, and it is more suitable for expressing the most moving parts of literary works, which can be described as 'condensed essence'. Through the wonderful performances of the actors, the profound theme or stirring emotions will break through the invisible 'fourth wall' and trigger a more powerful resonance from the audience. Liu Yongchang, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Nanjing Normal University, believes that from literary works to stage plays, it is the embodiment of the diversification of the aesthetic needs of contemporary mass culture, which brings vitality to the industrialized theater market and brings more opportunities for better spiritual products.

Pay tribute to the classics and condense the essence of literature on the stage

Literary works and stage art are two completely different art forms, the presentation of the carrier, creative skills, aesthetic standards are very different, in just two hours or so, the "soul" of literary works on the stage, which is the common problem faced by every adaptor in the creation.

The novel "The World of Man", which won the Mao Dun Literature Prize, is divided into three volumes, with a total of 1.15 million words, and the writer Liang Xiaosheng wrote it by hand for 8 years before it was completed. The book describes the changes of the times and the great changes in the lives of ordinary people in China in the past half century, and the narrative time spans a large time span, with more than 100 characters. For the idea of adapting it into a drama, Liang Xiaosheng did not agree at first, "At that time, I was resolutely opposed, the content that can only be packed in dozens of episodes of the TV series, how can you fit in three hours of drama?" ”

It is also true that this million-word novel, three generations of decades of time, compressed in three hours, is the biggest challenge encountered when adapting the script of the play. Screenwriter Yuan Bin uses the method of multi-scattering, multi-time and space, and multi-paragraph methods to construct the script, focusing on excavating the psychological conflicts of the characters in order to form a greater dramatic conflict in the three hours of the theater. He decided to use Zhou Bingkun as the narrator to connect related characters and events to form the focus of the stage narrative and let the audience empathize.

In May 2021, the drama "The World of Man" was successfully premiered. Some viewers left a message: The drama "The World of Man" has a precious aesthetic experience, which visualizes and three-dimensionalizes the text, so that young people have a more intuitive understanding of the historical process after China's reform and opening up. Such a stage work finally won the recognition of Liang Xiaosheng, on the night of the premiere, Liang Xiaosheng said emotionally on the stage: "Drama has brought mankind the richest performance and viewing, can provide the most direct communication opportunities, it can be said that human beings are not extinguished, drama should last forever." ”

"It's too hard!" This is the sigh of the national first-class screenwriter Ouyang Yibing after adapting Huang Beijia's "Wild Bee Flying". "Novels and plays have different ways of thinking, and as a screenwriter, I need to break the novel, eat it thoroughly, recombine it, organize it, design the plot, turn it into a story, and put it on the stage." On the basis of reading the original work over and over again, Ouyang Yibing conceived and created according to the logic of the play, repeatedly revised, changed his manuscript four times, and transformed "Wild Bee Flying" into a dramatic text. In his view, an excellent adaptation is a dialogue between the hearts of the adaptor and the author of the novel, and on the basis of a deep understanding of the connotation of the novel, it finds a point of convergence between the original work and the spirit of the times, reflecting the aesthetic psychology and pursuit of contemporary people.

Innovation and transformation, adaptation should not only stay on the original work

Turning words into performances, where is the core code for creation? In the view of some experts, the marriage between literary works and stage is not simply and rudely using the stage as a "storytelling field" for retelling novels, but should be based on respecting the spiritual core of the original work, reorganizing and deconstructing the events, characters and interrelationships in literary works, using staged vocabulary and innovative techniques to inject new souls into works and give them a new artistic life.

In the view of young screenwriter Luo Zhou, adapting a classic literature into a stage work is to stand on the shoulders of giants from the beginning, but how to go one step further and explore more profoundly is the biggest test for a screenwriter. "A qualified adaptor must be familiar with the two art forms of the original work and stage art, and when adapting, he must accurately control and interpret the emotional and spiritual connotations of the characters of the original work, and then on the basis of respecting the original work, dig deeply, and carry out imaginative re-creation to deepen the spiritual connotation of the original work, so as to reflect the significance of the adaptation."

In 2016, the 600th anniversary of the death of Tang Xianzu and the British playwright Shakespeare, in order to pay tribute to the two drama masters, the Kun Theatre in Jiangsu Province created the Kun opera "Drunken Flower", and Luo Zhou specially selected Shakespeare's classic work "Romeo and Juliet" for adaptation. Luo Zhou said that this adaptation is not to find similarities, but to present differences. "'Drunken Flower' is not to prove that Kunqu opera can also interpret Western classic drama, but to show the audience that Western literary classics, when it enters the field of traditional Chinese opera and is interpreted in the style of Oriental classical opera, will show how different from the West, unique aesthetic outlook and aesthetic character." Luo Zhou particularly emphasized that the innovation made by the screenwriter in the adaptation does not mean subverting the original work, but following the direction guided by the original author, further excavating and exploring the depth of human nature and the height of the theme.

"From literary works to stage works, the medium of art has changed, and what remains unchanged should be the spiritual connotation contained in literary classics." Zhang Ligang, chairman of Jiuwei Culture Media Co., Ltd., has operated many dramas such as "White Deer Plain" and "Ordinary World", which are classics praised by the audience. He said that to put literary works on the stage, adaptors need to explore the far-reaching inner space of classic works by intensively reading texts, "read the novel more than 20 times, and then think about what hidden humanity and ideological connotations are hidden in this novel in addition to the story, which are the things that the playwright needs to refine." The adaptor should turn the personal reading experience into the common experience of everyone in the same space through the unique time and space of the stage, so that the adapted work can truly echo the original work and achieve a high degree of spiritual consistency. When talking about his most impressive adaptation, Zhang Ligang mentioned the dance drama "Qingyi", and he believes that the moving thing about this work is to fill the spirit of the original work in the stage performance, "The characteristics of art must be integrated with the profound and thick ideas of literature to bring the audience to think." ”

"In the vast literary treasure house of the stars, there are countless works that can be transformed into stage works, and we literary and art workers need to constantly innovate, select literary works that people love and have wide dissemination for adaptation, and let a number of literary and artistic masterpieces stand on the stage of Jiangsu." Liao Yi revealed that this year, they will also put Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum" on the drama stage, which is currently being rehearsed intensively.

Source: Xinhua Daily