Near the Drum Tower, deep in the alley, the daily life of the 82-year-old famous director Lin Zhaohua is to walk with his wife He Bingzhu to the nearby Shichahai to read books at home. The stage that has been with him for most of his life is getting farther and farther away from him, and it has become a rare thing to enter the theater to watch the play.
For the dramatic change triggered by one of his plays 36 years ago, he waved his hand, "Let the past pass!" However, as part of history, Lin Zhaohua and his Absolute Signal are destined not to be forgotten.
Can the original play still be performed like this?
European tour for the first time to get to know the little theater
In the early 1980s, Chinese drama, which had just recovered from a decade of catastrophe, was in a state of unprecedented activity. This is especially true of Beijing Renyi, where artists restore traditional and excellent repertoire in search of lost Peking Renyi style of acting. Today's admirable old artists, who were middle-aged and creative, were full of people in every rehearsal hall of the theater.
At the end of 1980, Beijing Renyi "Tea House" went on a tour to Europe. During the performance in France, the local organizer invited everyone to see two small theater plays. The time and space transformation of the actors in the small theater that is coming and going, making everyone feel the unprecedented dramatic charm.
Stills from the 1980 edition of The Teahouse
Although nearly 40 years have passed, actor jungle is still impressive. "That was the first time we saw a small theater play, it was a bit silly, there was a square stage in the middle of the theater, there were audiences on three sides, the performance had not yet started, there was an actor sitting on the stage eating bread, there was no bell, the actors directly began to act." 」 Taking advantage of the tour, everyone watched more than ten small theater plays. The fresh stage presentation and natural way of performing have given everyone a great impact. Therefore, Zhizhi also found this form very interesting, and Beijing Renyi could also try small theaters in the future.
Ren yi small theater
Lin Zhaohua, who is now revered by the domestic theater industry as the "great director", was 46 years old at the time and was still a newcomer director who had just changed from an actor to a new director. In April 1982, the Beijing-Shanghai Directors Conference to Encourage Creation was held, and Lin Zhaohua participated as a young director. At the meeting, Hu Weimin, a well-known theater director in Shanghai, put forward three slogans for the theater revolution, "looking east and west, overwhelmed, lawless." After the meeting, Lin Zhaohua said that he was going to rehearse a new play, and the title of the play was not yet decided.
It was brought by screenwriter Liu Huiyuan, a prototype script featuring unemployed youths, and Lin Zhaohua was very interested when he heard it. However, at that time, unemployed youth was still a relatively sensitive social issue, and the unemployed youth in the play premeditated crimes, and they certainly could not be put on the stage. Lin Zhaohua came up with a theme of "the old car captain saves the runaway youth", which made the play become much more active, passed the review of the theater, and the script was "Absolute Signal".
Flashlight when chasing light
An attempt that was not included in the production plan
Looking back today, "Absolute Signal" is actually very traditional - the unemployed young kuroko and the young girl bee love, but there is no money to marry, the car bandits conspired with him to steal the car, they boarded a guard car (hanging on the rear of the truck, running the captain's work car) by Kuroko's classmate trumpet, and the bee happened to take this car. Therefore, in the limited space of the carriage, there was a fierce contradiction and conflict around the relationship between the sunspot, the trumpet, and the bee, as well as the contest between the old captain and the bandit. Finally, Kuroko suddenly woke up and collapsed in a fight with the car bandits.
Stills from "Absolute Signal"
The biggest difference from the past is the form, the script of "Absolute Signal" contains three spaces: the space of reality, the space of memory, and the space of imagination. These three spaces are represented on the stage at the same time, which has never been tried before on the Chinese theater stage.
However, this attempt did not attract much attention, and it was not even included in the theater production plan of that year. Without money, Lin Zhaohua found Tan Zongyao, who happened to have no acting at the time, and Shang Lijuan, Xiao Peng, and Jungle, who had just graduated from the Renyi student class. Lin Liankun, the teacher of the student class, also came to join the young people.
There was no place, they were on the fourth floor of the theater, an idle practice room rehearsal; Huang Qingze, who was the stage designer, found a useless light box in the theater, and a dozen boxes were built up, and the frame was nailed with wooden strips on them, which was to guard the car; the practice room had no stage lighting, so they used lighting, and when they needed to chase the light, they used flashlights... Jungle said that later many viewers looked at the novel place, which was actually designed for the conditions of the practice room.
"To engage in art, we always have to pursue something, always have no energy in the old way, and there is no taste in acting." Lin Zhaohua wanted to moth the whole thing.
The story takes place on the guard train, and the crew members take a truck from Beijing Station to Zhangjiakou to experience life one by one, sitting in the dark guard car back and forth. There was a freight yard outside the Yongding Gate, with hundreds of guard cars parked, Lin Zhaohua simply took everyone there to rehearse the play, and there were workers around the yard staring at them during the rehearsal.
Lin Zhaohua, who is particularly attentive to this play, not only puts a truck into the cave for everyone in the theater during the day, but also returns home at night, but also has to listen to music, sit under the three drawers of his own home, and experience the feelings of the characters in the play.
The silent "weird bean"
It has aroused unexpected heated discussion and attention
In the rehearsal, Lin Zhaohua asked the actors to live on the stage in a real and more natural way, overcome all false and contrived performances, and achieve the performance effect of not leaking traces.
In the play, the old car captain has a rather philosophical line, Lin Liankun thinks that the sense of stage should be stronger, Lin Zhaohua interrupted him, thinking that it would not be enough to live. Later, Lin Liankun also summed up the method, "When you prepare as a line, it is easy to perform the line, and you lose the breath of life of speaking." During the rehearsal process, I didn't think about how the passage should be said, but like in life, I could say whatever I wanted. ”
This kind of truth has never been seen in previous drama performances, can everyone accept it in the end? Lin Zhaohua didn't have a bottom in his heart either.
Everyone was nervous when the theater art committee censored. The lights in the practice hall were turned off, each character had a flashlight in his bag, and when he performed, he put the flashlight underneath it was footlight, and all the light chasing was done by Lin Zhaohua or the actor who did not play.
There are no sub-scenes in the whole play, and the costumes worn by the actors are their own. During the performance, the audience can feel the actor's slightly heavy breathing, and the actor can also feel the audience's eyes fixed on themselves.
After the performance, the lights in the rehearsal hall came on. However, the members of the art committee did not speak when they looked left and right, and the creators of the crew had no bottom in their hearts, "Is it okay in the end?" Everyone asked anxiously.
After a few minutes, Tian Chong, the oldest actor with the highest administrative level on the scene, finally spoke, "I see... This thing can only be regarded as a strange smell of beans now... It can be said that the audience eats too much salty, and it is okay to come to some acid..." But in the end, no one said whether this play could be performed or not.
However, it was from this rehearsal hall that this unseen "strange bean" attracted more and more attention. The people inside the theater watched it, and some of their peers also heard that Ren Yi was acting in the rehearsal hall and rushed to see it. Later, the performance venue was moved from the rehearsal hall to the banquet hall on the fourth floor of Renyi, and the stage was set in the audience. Sometimes the actor can touch the audience's leg with a big step, and once the actor stepped on the air, fell on the audience, said "I'm sorry" and continued to act.
Most of the time, people are silent after watching it, as if they don't know how to face such a work. There are also some young audiences who are very excited, is this play romantic or realistic? Is it modern or nationalized? The argument was red-faced.
Some people say that this is actually nothing, but it is fashionable and picks up foreign falls. Huang Zongluo, a veteran actor from Beijing, retorted: "I don't think there is any shame in imitating others, and isn't the drama itself transplanted from a foreign country?" ”
A letter from Cao Yu, then the director of the Beijing Renyi Arts, gave Lin Zhaohua great support. In his letter, Cao Yu affirmed the success of "Absolute Signal" and said, "We need different artistic styles and different styles of scripts to enrich the art of this theater, which will not make the theater not fall into a backwater." ”
Cao Yu's letter to Lin Zhaohua
Shocking enlightenment
Triggered a wave of exploration throughout the theater world
In 1982, Wang Xiaoying, former executive vice president and famous director of the National Drama Theatre, was a junior at the Central Academy of Drama. "Absolute Signal" he saw once during rehearsals, but he was not addicted to it, and went to see it again during the official performance.
At that time, Wang Xiaoying and his classmates had already learned about the development of Western drama through words, but this understanding was still stuck in words. When he saw "Absolute Signal", he really felt the impact of this art form, "The real state in the performance, the communication between the actors and the audience, is very touching!" After more than thirty years, Wang Xiaoying still remembers the stimulation he received at that time.
Stimulated by "Absolute Signal", China's small theater drama grew rapidly, and in 1983, Shanghai director Hu Weimin directed the small theater drama "Mother's Song". In 1984, Wang Xiaoying, a recent graduate, also directed his first small theater drama "Old B Hanging on the Wall". Because there was no fixed performance space, this play could be performed in the canteen, gymnasium, and conference room, which was quite influential at that time. Wang Xiaoying said: "'Absolute Signal' breaks the previous inherent theater concept and form, so that domestic audiences and practitioners realize that drama is not a matter of course, it is a very shocking enlightenment, and it has an essential impetus to domestic drama creation. ”
It is also under this impetus that from the late 1980s onwards, Chinese drama has set off a wave of "exploration" from small theaters to large theaters, and a large number of famous directors have emerged. Many of the directors who have achieved fame today, such as Meng Jinghui and Tian Qinxin, are inextricably linked to that era.
Explore more and more than one play at a time
It has a profound impact on young theater people
Starting from "Absolute Signal", Lin Zhaohua himself has embarked on a long road of exploration. In Renyi, he cooperated with Lin Liankun in dramas such as "Red and White Happy Event", "Dog Grandpa Nirvana", "Birdman", "FishMan" and so on, forming a unique "Erlin Phenomenon" in the Chinese drama world. "They strive to explore new things, always according to different script content and the style of the writer, looking for different forms of expression and means, they neither take shortcuts nor take the old way, each row of plays has a unique interpretation and treatment, all make people see some new ideas." Lin Liankun described this partner in the article "I Like Directors Like Lin Zhaohua".
Indeed, Lin Zhaohua never seems to take the usual path on stage. In the 1990s, he established the first independent theater group in China, "Lin Zhaohua Drama Studio". From his sixties to his seventies, he was still as passionate as a young director. His collaboration with the playwright Guo Shixing on works such as Birdman, ChessMan, FishMan, Toilet, and Alive or Dead is regarded as the deepest reflection on contemporary Chinese society and has attracted the attention of cultural circles at home and abroad.
Stills from the play "Toilet"
During this period, he also had classics such as "Three Sisters Waiting for Godot", "Master Builder", "The Orphan of Zhao", and "Cherry Orchard", which profoundly affected the development of domestic drama creation in terms of concept and consciousness. In 2013, Lin Zhaohua's rock version of "The Great General Kou Liulan" was invited to perform at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, when he was 77 years old. For nearly 40 years, Lin Zhaohua's artistic exploration has never stopped, and his pursuit of one drama and one style has had a profound impact on the younger generation of dramatists.
Stills from Master Builder
Stills from "The Great General Kou Liulan"
In 2010, the seventy-year-old "great director" did another "big thing" and held the first domestic drama invitation exhibition held by a private drama group - "Lin Zhaohua International Drama Invitation Exhibition".
He personally watched the plays, selected plays, and introduced excellent foreign plays into China, "I just want everyone to see what a good play looks like!" "The early stage of the invitation exhibition is all his own pocket to lose money to make money, a year to lose more than a million yuan, can only rely on other plays to "fill the hole", although there is institutional cooperation in the later stage, it is still too difficult to make money because of serious dramas.
But it is also this drama invitation exhibition that has pioneered the trend in China, prompting more and more international excellent dramas to come to China, so that the "time difference" between domestic and international dramas has become shorter and shorter, and domestic audiences can also see the freshest international works.
At the beginning of this year, the new version of "Three Sisters Waiting for Godot" directed by him was staged again, and the cooperation object became "small fresh meat" Zhang Ruoyun. For Zhang Ruoyun's performance, the old man was very satisfied, "You don't say, 'small fresh meat' is still very good, the creation is very serious, the rehearsal is also very serious." ”
"Now that artistic creation is becoming more and more free, it is his own problem that the artist cannot create good works." After reminiscing about the past, lin Zhaohua has a lot of regrets when it comes to today's drama creation, and he also reminds young creators, "The theory of artistic creation is secondary, and artist creation itself is the construction of theory, and according to the theories of others, they cannot discharge their own works." ”
After saying these words, he walked to the balcony with self-care, looked out the window at the tall poplar trees, and was silent.
Some of the pictures in this article come from the network
Author | Niu Chunmei
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Producer | Jia Wei
Source: Beijing Daily