In 1936, Lao She serialized the novel "Camel Xiangzi" in the magazine "Cosmic Wind", describing the scenery of Beijing with delicate brushstrokes. Fang Xu, who graduated from the directing major of the Central Academy of Drama, is known as "Lao She's professional household", he loves dramatic art, and also loves the unique tone and taste of Lao She's pen, and has adapted Lao She's classic literary works into drama works many times.
On January 12th and 13th, 2024, to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Lao She's birth, a new version of "Camel Xiangzi" will be staged in Dongyi, with Siqin Gaowa as the artistic consultant, and three generations of powerful actors from the old, middle and young generations will form an "all-male class" lineup, so that the literature of "Beijing flavor" will become a drama of "Beijing flavor".
"Camel Shoko" poster
Old Beijing Fang Xu grew up in a courtyard, "the year Mr. Lao She left, I happened to be born." Maybe it was fate, or fate, Fang Xu plunged headlong into drama creation, drunk and obsessed.
For more than ten years, Fang Xu has continuously created and rehearsed many Lao She dramas. Since the first adaptation of the novel "My Life", he has successively directed "The Story of Cat City", "Lao Li's Fantasy of Love" (adapted from "Divorce"), "Niu Tianci" (adapted from "The Biography of Niu Tianci"), "Lao She Catches the Collection" (adapted from Lao She's four short stories and two essays), "Two Horses" and other works.
In the eyes of Fang Xu, who plays the roles of director, screenwriter and actor, "The script is the foundation of a drama and a brain-burning job, but I like it very much." The director is rational and the actor is emotional, and these three identities have given me more thinking and improvement, and I have completed one work after another. He believes that drama can provoke thinking about a problem on and off stage. He hopes that with a new stage presentation method and modern theater techniques, this "old" literary classic can be "rejuvenated" on the current stage.
Director: Fang Xu
In "Niu Tianci" and "Erma", Fang Xu boldly used "all-male class" actors to break the audience's viewing Xi. "Camel Xiangzi" follows this creative idea, and the characters in the play are all played by male actors. Sun Ning, Guo Xiao, Liu Xinran, Zhao Zhen and many other outstanding actors form an eye-catching lineup.
What kind of dramatic effect will the "all-male class" bring? How will male actors "reverse" female roles? How will the tiger girl played by male actors express the tragedy of love with Xiangzi? Fang Xu insisted that form should serve content, and if it is detached from content, form will lose its meaning. When it comes to the casting of Tiger Girl, he believes that compared with film and television performances, on the drama stage, actors and roles are relatively separated, so gender is not very important. The actor's performance should fit the pungent and vulgar character of the tiger girl, satisfy the audience's imagination and understanding of the tiger girl, and make the stage full of games.
Rehearsal of the cast of the "all-male class".
In addition to the "all-male class" lineup, Fang Xu let the old, middle and young actors play Xiangzi at different stages of life on the same stage. In the adaptation, he did not take the love story of Xiangzi and Tiger Niu as the core of the story as in his previous works, but focused on Xiangzi, the three Xiangzi with different images and temperaments, or strong and hopeful, or disillusioned, deep despair, or willing to fall and insensitive......
Rehearsal of the cast of the "all-male class".
Fang Xu once compared the process of making a play to building an "energy field" in the theater. The actors and the audience gathered here, and there was a "desire to communicate with each other" on and off the stage. Starting from a new artistic perspective, the three Xiangzi will convey energy and information on stage, and jointly present the spiritual history of Xiangzi, a "stuffy gourd"—hidden, subtle and rich.
"Sense of the times" and "reality" are the two key words when Fang Xu talks about "Camel Xiangzi". At a time when the concept of literature and drama is changing, dramatists want to talk to today's audience while exploring the charm of Lao She's works in the theater. "Mr. Lao She's works are always full of the spirit of realism, he depicts a broad and real picture of society in his words, and gives infinite compassion and care to each character. ”
Fang Xu is good at finding connections with today's life in Lao She's novels: whether it is the experience of going abroad and the choice of young people's careers presented in "Two Horses", the reflections on the original family and excessive education in "Niu Tianci", the discussion of married life in "Lao Li's Fantasy of Love", or the upcoming new version of "Camel Xiangzi", all of them closely follow the pulse of the times and radiate a unique life force.
Image source: Courtesy of the organizer
Source: Author: Shi Chenlu