Du Xiaoyu: The "ex-husband brother" who does not want to be labeled

Du Xiaoyu played the male protagonist Du Qi in the happy twist stage play "The Thief Wants to Get You"

"Ex-husband brother" is a "hurdle" that can never be bypassed when talking about the happy twist actor Du Xiaoyu. In 2013, Du Xiaoyu debuted on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and the image of the "ex-husband brother" in the sketch "Today's Happiness 2" was clever and mistaken, which made him famous overnight. With his natural comedy cells, accurate baggage jokes and solid and natural performances, Du Xiaoyu has since appeared on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala for two consecutive years, and the three characters of "Praise Brother", "Big Ben Brother" and "Police Brother" he created in the sketch "Can't Help" and the image of "Director Du" played in the sketch "Vote for It" have left a deep impression on the national audience.

In fact, as early as before he appeared on the CCTV stage, Du Xiaoyu was already a bright star in the Happy Twist team. Starting from "Crazy Stone", Du Xiaoyu has continuously created wonderful roles on the stage, whether it is President Qiu in "The Earl of Wulongshan", Teacher Wang in "Charlotte Troubles", Mike in "Prison Friends", and Minister Willy in "More Than Bright Moonlight in the Window", all reflect a "famous saying" circulating in the Happy Twist team: "Ginger is still old spicy, drama is still brother's stability.".

Since the moment when the classic role of "ex-husband brother" was widely known to the audience, Du Xiaoyu knew very well in his heart that he would be asked countless times in the future: "How will you break through the 'ex-husband brother'?" In fact, in Du Xiaoyu's view, the word "breakthrough" is too heavy and too formal. "After all these years, I'm still called 'ex-husband', which at least shows that the role is successful. If I don't want people to call me 'ex-husband', I will have to produce more new works, play more new characters, and engrave new and better characters in the minds of the audience. ”

The happy twist year-end hilarious New Year stage play "Thief Wants to Get You", which is currently being performed at the Haidian Theater in Beijing, is a new attempt by Du Xiaoyu on the stage. Adapted from the "blockbuster" work "The Great Bank Robbery" by British directors and screenwriters Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sail and Henry Shields, the original work was in London's West End for 3 years and was extremely popular at the box office, and won the 2017 Olivier Theatre Award for Best New Drama.

In "The Thief Wants You," a priceless diamond, a small town with an ancient heart, misplaced and lies collage a hilarious robbery anecdote: Birmingham City Bank, which has been poorly run for many years, finally receives a big order - Prince Edward intends to store a precious diamond here. The news spread to a distant prison, where professional habitual Du qi escaped from prison with his companion Bucky in order to steal diamonds, and wrapped up the beautiful and fickle female liar Kelly and professional pickpocket Sam, and embarked on a desperate road to riches. As everyone knows, they are greeted by an even more chaotic "carnival"...

In this absurd and bizarre work full of black humor, Du Xiaoyu plays the male protagonist Du Qi, a "thief king" hidden in the town. In Du Xiaoyu's eyes, for a comedy transplanted from foreign works, localization adaptation is a very important task. "Due to the theme, we did not transfer the place where the story took place to China, but on the basis of retaining the original story framework, we tried to localize the adaptation in terms of specific plot, human material sense, and line expression as much as possible." Du Xiaoyu introduced that in addition to deleting some of the too black content and strengthening the love element, "The Thief Wants to Get You" also changed the end of the whole drama: "The hero and heroine finally found their conscience and made introspection in the process of pursuing love, which also allowed the audience to experience a glimmer of hope after watching a black story." ”

In order to portray the character of Du Qi, Du Xiaoyu spent more than three months studying the script and looking for the state of the character. "In addition to fully understanding the characters, it is more important to think deeply about how to adjust the characters and shape the characters according to my own understanding, which requires the accumulation of life experience and performance experience." After nearly ten performances, Du Xiaoyu felt that Du Qi still had room for further transformation: "Now this role is still slightly single, in addition to brutality and viciousness, he still has a little bit of humanity for the heroine." Next, I wish there was a little light shining into Duche's dark heart. This is not to whitewash the negative characters, but to pinch the texture of the local rich characters. ”

In the past ten years, Du Xiaoyu has played important roles in many happy twist stage plays such as "Somali Pirates", "Earl of Wulongshan", "Charlotte Troubles" and so on, but when it comes to his favorite works, Du Xiaoyu first promoted "Jianghu Academy", which premiered in 2009. "First of all, I prefer the theme of costumes, and more importantly, this drama has reached a very high level in terms of drama structure, human material sense, and quality of baggage." Du Xiaoyu played Yu Mancang, the dean of jianghu college, in the play, "This role is very three-dimensional, he is a bad person, but bad enough to have a bottom line and humanity, I can deeply feel the temperature of the character." To this day, Du Xiaoyu is still obsessed with this role.

However, Du Xiaoyu's favorite is not the most famous work of Happy Twist. "In a way, "Jianghu Academy" is a bit of a high and low meaning. Sometimes the audience walks into the theater just to watch a hilarious comedy, to simply laugh, and not to think about too many things. Works of high quality such as "Jianghu Academy" are often ignored by some audiences because of their certain depth. Du Xiaoyu said with regret.

There are many comedians with high personal styles in the Happy Twist team, the most famous of which are Shen Teng and Ma Li. Du Xiaoyu admits that it is not easy to highlight his personality and characteristics in a comedy creation team with a hundred flowers, so he is reluctant to label himself: "Putting a 'label' is actually a pros and cons. Actors with 'labels' are more recognizable and easier for audiences to remember you; actors without 'labels' can try a wider range of roles. Du Xiaoyu doesn't mind being given a "label" by others, "But it might be better for me to have no 'label'." Because the type of character created by the actor must be in line with his own performance style and performance ability, and at the same time, it must also be in line with the overall temperament of the work. We must not give up our thinking as an actor for the sake of the so-called "label", nor can we arbitrarily destroy the integrity of the work. ”

In recent years, Du Xiaoyu has also performed some film and television works such as "A Thought of Heaven", but he has always stressed that the drama stage is his root. "Stage performances are immersive, coherent, and one-of-a-kind, and I like that feeling even more, so I insist on performing on stage every year." Du Xiaoyu said that he has not participated in many film and television works, on the one hand, because sometimes the collision period, sometimes the role is not suitable, on the other hand, because he is more nostalgic for the stage, "I hope to spend more time, face to face for the audience to perform, and close contact and communication with them." ”

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