As a classic work, the degree of acceptance and performance of "Wilderness" in each era can be different, whether it is China in 1937 or 2021, in terms of the three themes of life, desire and human nature, the charm of the prompt in the prologue still exists - "the earth is depressed, life is hidden inside".
Because of this, the new version of renyi "Wilderness", which premiered at the end of 2021, can be seen that it does not put the background characteristics of the work and the theme of anti-etiquette in a particularly important performance position, and this young creative team does not bother to complete the purpose of value expression and meaning inquiry, but takes pure art as the starting point and makes a play in a down-to-earth manner.
Therefore, this version of "Wilderness" allows us to see more renewal of artistic means and the practice of many artistic concepts, which represent innovation and vitality.
If you are most impressed by this version of Wilderness, there are two points:
First, the stage performance that is highlighted by the overall form.
Second, the subject is shaped by external forms.
The drama version of "Wilderness" has Xu Fan Hu Jun, the movie has Liu Xiaoqing Yang Zaibao version, the Sichuan opera version has Shen Tiemei, and the Chinese opera graduation performance has also had the version of Lu Liping and others, although few people have seen it. Of course, these performance versions have different treatments of performances, and together they complete the performance accumulation of "Wilderness".
Taking the end of the first act as an example, JinZi sent away the big star, Jiao Mu went down, and Jin Zi stood alone on the stage, at this time Qiu Hu came on. This is a very important paragraph, which almost sets the understanding and tone of the whole play about love or desire. The two men rekindled their old feelings, and the gold at this time was not so much a rebellion against etiquette for freedom, but rather a matter of going along with their hearts, "Just tonight?!" It is a rather profound line, and many versions have been processed in many versions. Behind each treatment is an understanding and reinterpretation of the original work.
Chen Yiyi's director's version is handled as The gold played by Xu Fan remains unchanged, saying "Just tonight" with a bit of longing emotions, Qiu Hu, played by Hu Jun, stepped forward to carry the gold, and the two went down, while creating a hopeful and beautiful situation and atmosphere with music.
And Zhang Keying's role in the new version of "The Wilderness" is completely different from the previous one, and this version of the treatment is that the gold is quiet on the surface but brings out the surging emotions with the body and limbs, "Just tonight." She asked and answered, answering more than asking, determined to overcome hesitation, and at the same time lifted her feet in red embroidered shoes and quietly and unhurriedly took a firm step.
The moment when only the highly symbolic foot wearing red embroidered shoes paused in mid-air, the whole theater was attracted and shocked by the bright red, she quietly lifted and fell silently, but from then on, the life of the flower gold was undulating, the mountains and rivers were wide and electric and flint, and this woman who was dominated by human nature took the most important step in her life, this step was in a sense to a new life, and in a sense to tragedy and destruction.
Here, the silent body language transcends the sound language of the lines, and Zhang Keying, as a young actor, has an accuracy that almost does not match the age of the physical expression and control embodied in this detail processing.
Throughout the performance, there are many exquisite and delicate and unique physical treatments, when the door bursts open, the drumming sound with beautiful musical processing assists the stage atmosphere, Jiao Mu hits the ground with a crutch, and fear and depression also come to the face.
At this moment, the actor who performs the emotion will perform the panic, but how can the performance of the emotion be a superb performance? Performance is not to set up an invisible camera on the scene, but to faithfully convey the scene and the sense of the scene, and the performance is the sense of the scene that needs to be processed and refined. It is the performance of not performing emotions that makes this version of Kaneko, a young actress, show an excellent academic performance education background.
Zhang Keying is very stable, an unconventional panicked treatment, the underside of the feet is still very light, and does not run around in the way of banging and stepping on the platform to show the panicked heart, but to do psychological warfare with the audience, using the form to express in stability. The tug-of-war with Da Xing sitting on the stone is, the encounter with the tiger is, when facing difficulties and cross-examination, the expression of the body is completed in the language of the form.
"Stepping on the red flower", Jiao Mu threatened her to take off the red flower, many actresses handled it as disdainful or rebellious to throw it, and Zhang Keying's handling action was not large, but converged, with a sense of helplessness, such a treatment is in line with the psychology of the characters and is more in line with the situation of the play. It seems to tell people silently and vividly about the other side of gold's weakness and timidity, letting people see that this woman is not a natural pungent, but a struggle that grows out of weakness.
Zhang Keying's performances are delicate, sophisticated, and academic, and although she is playing a highly emotional woman, she is not expressing emotions at all, reflecting the young actor's observation and understanding of life. But what is valuable is that she did not stay at the level of "living goblin" and "enchanted fox spirit", did not put the display of charm and sexiness in a particularly important position, but tried to highlight the vividness of this woman and the sense of tragedy that resulted from it.
In this way, her performance is consistent with the overall atmosphere of the play, in line with the heavy, gloomy tone of this version of "Wilderness", in line with the airtight stage situation, even the gloomy stage situation of human purgatory.
Starting from the use of clay figurines in the Tianjin Renyi version of "Wilderness", "Wilderness" has enriched the original artistic means of expressing human nature with ritual scenes, and the eight tall and charming rays beyond the normal size in this version have added to the mystery and ritualism of the stage.
Director Yan Rui wrote a paragraph on the program list: "'Wilderness' directly attacks the spiritual world of people and the torture of people's souls. Each of us will face the struggle between 'heart desire' and 'heart hell', and for the ideal heavenly kingdom of the illusion, only those who break the barriers of fate and get rid of the shackles of freedom can reach the other shore. ”
Eight tall dolls provide an external form for this director's interpretation, expressing the tragic meaning of primitive power, desire and destiny, and the subject matter is shaped by external forms. In these attempts and treatments, we also see the growth and achievements of the new director Yan Rui.
This young director with an educational background in opera performance seems to have more opera means to apply to his works, but we are happy to see that he does not practice simple and rough drama nationalization in a grafted way, but does it in a more advanced and modern way of thinking and doing it.
The stage vision of the new version of "Wilderness" has an independent and complete modern expression. The rough surface, the sloping objects, the baby bed that is about to fall in the front area, the icy and sculptural feeling created by the side light of the glamorous rays and the spectators, the stage imagery composed of broken flower branches... Everything is a visual whole, in the service of the saying that "the earth is somber, and life is hidden in it."
(Rotten Tomatoes Newsroom)