From the South African "Mandarin" Baxter Theatre to the prestigious "Theatre Magician" Robert Lepage, from the masterpiece of the Nobel Prize winner Coetzee to the creator's private narrative...... The 2024 Shanghai Jing'an Modern Drama Valley will be launched at the end of this month, and a number of plays from all over the world will be staged in Shencheng.
Freshness and amazement coexist, and most of the international dramas in the previous Drama Valley were mainly premiered in Shanghai and even in China, and this year is no exception, including "Michael J. K's Life and Times", "887", "Waiting for Godot" and other word-of-mouth works will meet the audience. "Famous artists, famous troupes, famous directors, and famous works, this is the original intention of our selection of international works," Xu Zhongping, the head of the drama valley repertoire, told reporters, "understanding the world's cutting-edge drama trends on the stage of the drama valley has become the expectation of senior drama fans in Shanghai and even many domestic industry professionals." ”
Real people and puppets share the stage to find the essence of life
Coming from the other side of the world, South Africa's Baxter Theatre will make its Chinese debut from Cape Town to Drama Valley. This time in Shanghai, the theater was full of sincerity and brought "Michael · The Asian premiere of The Life and Times of K. In the original book of the same name, Coetzee uses concise language to describe an ordinary individual with a simple mind who only wants to live freely. K, who tries to leave the city with his mother, is constantly experiencing moments of helplessness in a complex and conflict-ridden society.
In recent years, there have been very few South African theatre productions on the Shanghai stage. "Excellent, superior, and superb", Xu Zhongping did not hesitate to praise this work. Under the direction of Laura Ford, the theater's artistic director, the text completes the stage metamorphosis. "This is a story about human nature, and the main character, Michael M. K doesn't love or hate, he's not a hero, he doesn't have a following, but he gives hope to the most vulnerable. Laura Ford said. For the talented director, it is not easy to tell philosophy in words on stage, but by giving life to beautifully carved puppets, silence is better than sound.
On stage, Michael M. K and his mother will be represented through puppets, and some of the other characters will be played by real people. The puppet performance is one of the performance units of "War Horse" familiar to Shanghai audiences - South Africa's "Palm Qiankun" puppet troupe. In the play, puppets are not only a form of performance, but also represent the logic of the characters' lives, "they are outside of war and destruction, and they perform in another picture." At the Edinburgh Theatre Festival last year, Xu Zhongping was impressed by the smooth connection between the puppets and the real people, "The puppets have an icy aesthetic and convey the spirit of the protagonist in a visual way, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the theatre and feel the charm of the story."
“魔法师”使出浑身解数，回答记忆的疑问
Ten years have passed since its premiere, and Robert Lepage's autobiographical one-man show "887" has actually been sealed. But when asked what "meeting gift" he would give to Chinese mainland audiences, Lepaj still chose this work without hesitation. After its premiere in 2015, the work was named "Top 10 Performances of the Year" by The Guardian. "887" is a journey of memory, and "887" represents Le Pagui's childhood residence, the apartment at 887 rue Murray. Le Paguie uses this as a starting point to explore the relationship between people and memory.
How does memory work? Why do we remember small moments but forget grand moments? Contemporary people have more and more technical memories and fewer and fewer emotional memories, so is theater still valid as an art form based on "re-acting"? Lepagee incorporates this series of questions into the story he personally performs, using a performance that combines a theatrical performance and a lecture to explain the understanding of being an actor. In addition to the texts of the performance, it is important to keep in mind one's own past, as well as the historical and social realities that have shaped one's identity.
"Amazing ingenuity" and "magical stage installation", on the rating website, some viewers described this work as "superb". Le Pagui sees theatre as "the art of light and shadow", and on World Theatre Day in 2008, he said in his speech, "In the face of a complex world, artists must constantly renew their creative forms and trust in the wisdom of the audience, who can grope the contours of humanity in the eternal play of light and shadow." This statement can be said to sum up Le Pagui's theatrical style. In 887, the "theater magician" can be said to have done his best, mobilizing as many means as possible—puppetry, shadow play, sound, body, instant projection, and classic monologue—to tell a story about memory and forgetting, history and the present, society and "me".