Beijing News (reporter Liu Zhen) from April 30 to May 7, produced by the National Centre for the Performing Arts, specially invited young director Huang Ying directed, adapted from the film of the same name drama "Cross Street" will usher in the second round of performances. This is also another work tailored for the drama actor team in the small theater after "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Bird" and "West Looking at Chang'an". In the upcoming second round of performances, Dong Wenliang, Xu Zixuan, Li Xichang, Feng Yang, Yu Mengchao, Liu Beibei, Wang Wenjie and other former members will reunite on the stage.
Stills from Cross Street.
In 1937, "Cross Street" was launched by the Star Film Company, written and directed by Shen Xiling, and starring Artists such as Zhao Dan and Bai Yang. As a classic in the history of Chinese cinema, "Cross Street" describes the choices and youth of young people in the cross street at that time with a unique style of civic comedy. More than eighty years later, the young people who live in the partition room and are distressed by unemployment still exist, and the joys and sorrows of the shared apartment still resonate with today's audiences, and the line in the movie, "I always feel that people like us have a certain mission, and we can't end it until this mission is achieved a little bit", can still deeply enlighten the young people who are at the crossroads of life.
In October 2020, the National Centre for the Performing Arts put this film history classic on the drama stage and successfully premiered. The drama "Cross Street" not only retains the characters with very different personalities in the original film and their different fates in the general environment, enriches the plot elements such as "reliable friendship", "sweet and shy love", "vision and yearning for the future", "repressed but happy life", but also carries out dialogue between history and reality by reshaping the classic image and increasing the narrative, highlighting "what is a valuable life" and "what kind of mission should young people undertake", and other life propositions that transcend history and have eternity.
In the view of director Huang Ying, the prescription given in the film for the young people who feel wandering is love redemption, and for the current young people, the stories of the creators outside the film can give a good medicine. Looking back at Shen Xiling, Zhao Dan and other young people who gathered together to shoot films, their lives also moved in different directions on the cross streets of life after this film, or made remarkable achievements in the film world, or embarked on a respectable and lamentable revolutionary road. Therefore, while retaining the plot of the original film, the play also adds the story of the filmmakers outside the play. Choosing such a film history classic that resonates with the current audience and looks at modern life for drama creation is an important exploration of the artistic production of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen
Edited by Tian Kaini Proofreader Lucy
Source: Beijing News