There are so many cow people, why Chinese only commemorate him?
The Dragon Boat Festival has arrived,
In the history of China, it can be so closely related to a festival,
Only Qu Yuan was alone.
In his honor,
Director Guo Xiaonan spent a year,
Came to Qu Yuan's hometown to collect the style,
created the large-scale drama "Qu Yuan",
A few days ago, he toured in Wuhan, Yichang and Beijing.
It breaks the usual acting method of historical dramas,
A different Qu Yuan is presented.
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By Hubei Yangtze River People's Art Theater
Co-produced by Hubei Three Gorges Performing Arts Group
"Qu Yuan" breaks the usual acting method of historical dramas
2 hours of drama,
Not only condensed Qu Yuan's 40 years of political career,
It also fully shows many of his famous articles
Such as "Divorce", "Tianwen", "Nine Songs"...
Time and space are not a straight line,
Qu Yuan, King Huai of Chu, and Zhang Yi in different periods
will appear at the same time,
The gods depicted in the Nine Songs,
Have a conversation with Qu Yuan, who is standing on the bank of the Miluo River...
"If you put this drama,
Handled as a 'political palace fight' scene alone,
It was almost a great disrespect to Chu culture and Qu Yuan. ”
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Director Guo Xiaonan was interviewed
On the eve of the performance,
We went to Wuhan to interview Guo Xiaonan,
As soon as he debuted, he was known as "a rising star in the Shanghai directing industry".
The following is behind the scenes of the creation of his drama "Qu Yuan".
Readme: Guo Xiaonan
Editor: Chen Xing
Responsible editor: Ni Chujiao
Popular artist Zhu Jingyi, the original works of iconic calligraphy and paintings are online, and immediately click on an art mini program to collect
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In Wuhan's East Lake Park stands a statue of Qu Yuan
Speaking of Qu Yuan, we will have the impression that he is a person who has thrown himself into the river. You may not know his experience, life, and era, but his death has been going to this day, why does the whole world know Qu Yuan? The reason?
At the beginning of last year, I received this project, and it took more than a year of process to do desk work. The study of the script, the fieldwork, and the vast amount of information to see.
This history is not unfamiliar to the past, but the drama of the historical stage of the Spring and Autumn Warring States is more than 2,000 years from today, and it is very difficult to grasp its charm with Chu Yun, Chu Feng, and Chu Ci.
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Spent more than a year doing desk work
While collecting the wind, we went to his hometown. Zigui is located in the mountains of mountains, close to the Yangtze River, the surface of the river is particularly wide, there is no wave, no turbulence.
I suddenly felt that this was indeed the land of emperors and gods. A person born and raised here, the mind is really different, it is the scene where Qu Yuan can ask the heavens and the earth.
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The 800-year exhibition of the State of Chu in the Hubei Museum is full of visitors
Along the way, the ruins of Yichang Museum, Jingzhou Museum, Hubei Museum, and Yingdu are very unexpected, really out of sight, not thinking.
The bronzes of the State of Chu, the tools of sacrifice, the musical instruments chimes, the gong, the craftsmanship of casting and smelting and art at that time, people today cannot do it, just like looking at alien civilization. Why can all this arise in the Chu Kingdom? Very mysterious.
I especially want to capture this "divine inspiration" in the play, and run dreamy, weird spiritual elements throughout the play.
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Put dreamy, weird spiritual elements throughout the play
Historical dramas are often written clockwise, the pattern of palace fighting dramas, expressed for power, for interests, for party friends, forces, etc., different groups kill again and again.
But if "Qu Yuan" is only handled as a "political palace fight" scene, it is almost a great disrespect to Chu culture and Qu Yuan. The content of this script may fall more on the collision of culture conflict and value conflict, and the writing is relatively modern.
The stage design this time is actually an altar, with the strange style of Chu Wu.
In a sense, the performance is also a ritual, and I believe that the audience should be able to have a collective unconscious sacrifice to Qu Yuan's spirit in the process of watching the play.
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Wang Luoyong plays Qu Yuan
The screenwriter Huang Weiruo wrote about Qu Yuan's flashback memories of his life over the past 40 years at the moment he threw himself into the river, and from 316 to 277 BC, Qu Yuan was constantly hit, constantly abandoned, and constantly accepted by people.
The first scene takes place on the bank of the Miluo River, where Qu Yuan, who has been in exile for 20 years, meets the gods in his "Nine Songs" in a dream. They each sang a sentence from "Nine Songs", a feeling of spiritual communication.
I used this scene to set the tone, which is a drama that is realistic, unreal, and intertwined. The real country of Chu, the unknown and mysterious universe, Qu Yuan traveled through it.
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Soul dialogue is realized from time to time in the play
Time and space are not straight lines. Qu Yuan, King Huai of Chu, and Zhang Yi of different periods sometimes appear at the same time. Dialogue between people, dialogue between man and God, dialogue between man and ghost, dialogue between man and soul.
Why this setting, because I want to shape another side of Qu Yuan.
His patriotic image is certain and recognized by everyone, and it was laid down from Mr. Guo Moruo's version of "Qu Yuan".
But we can make the coordinate system bigger, bigger, and deeper.
In addition to being a patriotic politician, Qu Yuan's ultimate ideal is "the Ming Emperor and the wise ministers prosper the Chu country together", and he fought with King Huai of Chu for a lifetime.
In addition, he was the first romantic poet in China, wrote the first chanting poem in Chinese history, "Ode to Orange", and he was also the great witch of the Chu state, undertaking the sacrificial work of the gods.
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The play integrates Qu Yuan's first Chinese poem "Ode to Orange"
Moreover, Qu Yuan's origin is the inheritance of the three emperors and five emperors, he and King Huai of Chu are the same ancestor, and are the descendants of the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, Zhu Yi, and the ancestor Shen Zhurong has some connection with him in bloodline.
Prehistoric culture, in his body has a kind of transmission and grafting, so that he is different from other historical figures, Wen Tianxiang, Zheng Chenggong, Yue Fei, Du Fu, compared with these people, his cultural concept, philosophical spirit may be broader and broader, so it is difficult to shape him.
If this layer of divinity is not expressed, you will not be able to access his password.
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The young image of Qu Yuan in the play is an elegant and dignified aristocrat of the Chu State
Therefore, his youth image is a noble man of the Chu State, who combines noble, elegant, dignified, capable and other temperament, likes to wear high crowns, long swords, likes to use flowers and plants as clothing, likes to admire jade, "feeds on flowers", is tall and tall, and has a strong air.
We have always hoped to find a descendant of the Chu State in Wuhan to play Qu Yuan.
In the end, Wang Luoyong was chosen, and he really lived here for a while. Luo Yong has good physical fitness, he does Peking Opera, and he has been specially trained in drama, and he has been honed on Broadway in musical theater for so long, so his stage skills are very complete, and there are indeed not many such actors.
During rehearsals, he strictly exercised self-discipline, running in the morning, skipping meals at night, and going to the riverside every day to memorize lines in large sections. He has expressed very fully in the performance of lines, the power of the stage, and the shaping of the body.
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The scene where Qu Yuan committed suicide in the end is the climax
The scene where Qu Yuan committed suicide at the end is the climax and my favorite passage. Luo Yong does not have many props at hand, only a bamboo simple, the stage can be said to be empty, and there are not many things he can rely on.
Qu Yuan, who had been banished for 20 years, walked down the river to the Dongting Lake in Hunan Province, and he had too many questions to ask. "Tianwen" has 374 sentences and puts forward 172 questions, asking the heavens, the earth, and the life, and the opening of the cosmic chaos, he is asking questions.
Luo Yong also "complained" to me, it was too difficult to act, because these 172 questions, to be expressed in different states, he said: "I also acted on the street, I also did it while sitting motionless, and I did it while walking, and even danced modern dance, I also danced." "Loyong did a very good job.
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At the end, Qu Yuan recited the passage of "Tianwen"
In the process of 20 years of exile, Qu Yuan did not write "the young man left home and returned home", nor did he write "flying down 3,000 feet", he wrote "At the beginning of ancient times, who preached the teachings?" The top and bottom are not shaped, why should they be tested? "He is asking about the origin of all things. He thought about this: Where is Zhurong? Where did Houyi go?
This scene made Qu Yuan outstanding, suddenly made him unattainable, and suddenly made him have a kind of divine inspiration.
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During the Warring States period, it was a combination of vertical and horizontal, and the heroes competed for hegemony
The story runs through nearly 40 years, and the struggle between the princely states for hegemony can actually tell a lot of thrilling stories.
For example, the State of Qin falsely claimed to use 600 li of land to trade in exchange for the State of Chu and the State of Qi to break off and ally with the State of Qin, but only took out 6 li of land. There was also the Wuguan Alliance, and the State of Qin deceived King Huai of Chu to the State of Qin in the form of peace talks, resulting in King Huai of Chu being imprisoned and dying in a foreign land. The state of Chu was defeated.
But when I was in the row, I didn't want to express right and wrong, the focus was not on dramatic conflict, nor on the political palace fight, but on the ideological and cognitive gap between Qu Yuan and others.
So there was a lot of dialogue, like going to court.
It can be said that the other characters in the play except Qu Yuan are all laymen and all put interests first.
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King Huai of Chu and Qu Yuan were monarchs and good friends
King Huai of Chu, he and Qu were originally best friends, discussing national politics, reforming national politics, changing laws, and resisting Qin, hoping to make the Chu state rise.
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The king of Chu, Sun and the nobles, touched their interests because of Qu Yuan's change of law, and made it difficult for Qu Yuan in every way
As a result, the change of law shook the interests of all the princes and grandsons and nobles, and was obstructed in every way. King Huai of Chu began to worry that no one would no longer be subordinate to him, so he stopped changing the law, and his line in the drama said: "If there is no one to conquer and no one to expand the territory, what is my king called?" "When the big me collides with the little self, he returns to lust.
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Zhang Yi is the opposite of Qu Yuan
Like Zhang Yi, the Zongheng family, he is a student of Ghost Guzi and has a three-inch incorruptible tongue. He was able to fool the kings of the entire Chu State and help the Qin State he served expand his territory in order to obtain the political interests of his own Zongheng family.
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Zheng Yi's purpose was to let his son Zilan inherit the throne
The other Zheng Yi, a Ji captured during the war, was afraid of losing his identity, so he wanted his son to inherit the throne. The screenwriter arranged a scene, Qu Yuan told Zheng Yi about strategy, but she didn't understand, what she cared about was the maintenance of the harem.
The process of these dozen scenes is actually very similar to a conversation between a god and a mortal, and it can't be said together.
It is precisely here that tragedy is here, when his spirit and dimension transcend the original living environment, he must get a collision, he must get what others do not accept, and he must be lonely.
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In the play, Qu Yuan is always entangled and always quarrelling
In the play, Qu Yuan is always entangled, always quarrelling, and can't go any way. Every time Qu Yuan acted, he had a profound philosophical reflection. To this extent, he resembles Prometheus, a tragic figure in ancient Greek mythology.
The screenwriter Mr. Huang Weiruo commented on Qu Yuan from an objective position and point of view with a unique brushstroke.
It is manifested as several scenes of soul dialogue, where everyone sits down to tell the truth and gain insight into life.
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Zhang Yi's ghost confessed to Qu Yuan
Zhang Yi's soul after his death, seeing Qu Yuan, went to repent: "I overthrew you between Qin and Chu Guozheng, but mentally, I have a deep sense of frustration..." Qu Yuan asked him: "Are you telling the truth, or the words of your tongue?" Zhang Yi replied, "Of course it's true. ”
In a population that was the most opposed to Qu Yuan at the beginning, getting the approval of Qu Yuan may be the most powerful truth.
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Rehearsal site
The process of doing "Qu Yuan" coincided with the worst of the epidemic.
In November last year, in order to avoid the epidemic, we went to an agricultural park 70 kilometers away from Wuhan and concentrated there to set up a stage to film, but the employees there were infected, so we closed inside.
At the end of December, when everyone was yang, it was just in time for the final stage of this play. Our garments were made in Hebei and Beijing, when the factory was in a hurry.
After February, everyone regrouped and arranged the show. We experienced and felt this moment in the final stage of the epidemic, which happened to be the process of us doing "Qu Yuan".
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Hao Ping, who plays King Huai of Chu
Hao Ping, who played King Chu Huai, and Wang Yinan, who played Zheng Yinan, we had a very happy collaboration more than ten years ago, and the performance of "Xiucai and the Executioner" was also in Yichang, and it also won the performance award at that time.
This time Yichang and the Yangtze River People's Art Theater co-produced, everyone felt that the aura was very suitable, so they were invited to perform.
The choreographer's music and dance are beautiful, you have to lose every link, everyone recognizes at a consistent level, forms their own system, flowers and plants will have to be repeatedly copied and eliminated for several months.
Only when everyone is highly compatible can they rush to that state and ensure that the breath that permeates the drama is in line with the charm.
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Guo Xiaonan has more than 40 years of experience directing dramas
I've been in rehearsal for 40 years now. I have arranged a lot of historical dramas, Jing Ke's assassination of Qin, and Yue Fei. Professional directors are like this, you can't stop, life has been put in such a cycle, you look back at nothing more than a few plays, but always hope that each play leaves something for the genre, for the troupe, for the repertoire.
When we look at the past eight hundred years of the Chu State, there are probably only two symbols left, except for bronze, which is Qu Yuan. In Qu Yuan's hometown of Yichang, Qu Yuan's sacrifice is held for more than a month every year.
The state of Chu, which had been defeated for 800 years, no one remembered that period of history, but everyone remembered Qu Yuan.
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Qu Yuan has passed away 2,300 years ago, and we still miss him
We don't expect it to be an easy-to-understand mass theatrical interpretation. Especially "Divorce", "Tianwen", and "Nine Songs", his views can range from cosmology, world view, to social view, to interpersonal relations, which is quite unattainable.
Reading his Chu Zhi, the sense of space and cosmology are completely different from ordinary people, and how much cosmic concept and world view people have, can they write these. He would bring out many propositions that are still being solved today. His inspirational, patriotic spirit is close to 2300 years old.