The Paper's reporter Wang Yi
On the evening of April 30, 2021, "Ding Xilin's Three Comedies of the Republic of China" landed at the Beijing Renyi Experimental Theater. Counting up, since the establishment of the group rehearsal performance of the play in 2016, this is the fifth time to board the HumanIties Experimental Theater. For six consecutive years, in addition to the sympathetic side with the audience in the capital in 2020, this one-act drama created by Ding Xilin, the first comedy master in the history of modern Chinese drama, has been compiled in conjunction with a compilation play, and almost every performance is difficult to find. Not to mention that in the past five years, the play has been performed more than 100 times in Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Kunming, Chongqing, Taipei, Xichang and other places, and has been sought after and loved by audiences and theater peers across the country. It is reported that this round of performances will last until May 17, with a break on Tuesdays and 16 consecutive performances.
Ding's comedy, "lighthearted, humorous, heartwarming and meaningful"
When it comes to "Three Rules of Comedy of the Republic of China", it is impossible not to mention the screenwriter Ding Xilin (1893-1974). As a representative figure of the literati of the Republic of China, Ding Xilin can be described as "a specialty and a multi-functional". He is a well-known physicist who has served as the head of the Department of Physics at Peking University, the director of the Institute of Physics of academia Sinica, and the vice chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology. Drama creation is entirely his "hobby", but with ten drama works (mostly one-act plays), he has become a representative figure of the customs and comedies of the Republic of China. It is also worth mentioning that during his tenure as director of the Institute of Physics at the Academia Sinica, he also developed the "11-hole new flute" that conforms to the 12-point law of average, and it is not an exaggeration to call him an instrumental craftsman.
The scene of the performance
As early as 1959, Jiao Juyin, one of the founders of Beijing Renyi, rehearsed his masterpiece "Three Yuan National Coin", which also became a classic in the history of renyi, and then "When The Wife Returns" and "Oppression" were also put on the stage of renyi. In 2016, Beijing Renyi compiled "A Horse Bee", "After Drinking", and "Blind Eye", three works that are closer to life, into "Three Comedies of the Republic of China of Ding Xilin". These three one-act plays are respectively excerpted from the life fragments between lovers, husbands and wives and friends in the Republic of China and dramatized for narration.
"Ding Xilin Republic of China Comedy Three Rules" 2016 version of the stills
"A Horse Bee" is Ding Xilin's dramatic debut, taking the new youth after May Fourth as the main object of depiction, and telling the story of two young people confirming each other's intentions and rebelling against feudal marriage customs in a fragment of life. "After Drinking" is adapted from the short story of the same name by writer Ling Shuhua, which is introduced by a friend who is drunk and lying drunk, and shows the hazy love of a couple to the fullest. The story of "Blind Eye" unfolds with an exaggerated letter, and the couple jointly lies to the friends who came to visit, staging a different kind of "pickpocketing coat". The three works are mainly based on the theme of marriage and love, presenting people's views of love and marriage in the 1920s in a calm and humorous way, and also highlighting The unique comedy style of Ding Xilin: relaxed, humorous, knowing and meaningful.
Introduction to the show
The actors closed the curtain
Needless to say, there are many subtle connections between Dincillin's comedic language and the British worldly comedy language, an argument that has been confirmed by academics. Thanks to his exposure to England during the First World War, he read and observed a large number of theatrical works, including world comedies, especially Shaw's excellence in language, which left an indelible influence on Dincillin, who was studying physics at the University of Birmingham at that time. Playwright and translator Li Jianwu once commented: "If There is drama in China, real custom comedy, authentic drama extracted from modern life, I do not want to exaggerate that the first monument belongs to Zhu Ding Xilin, which is well known to everyone." ”
"Ding Xilin Republic of China Comedy Three Rules" 2016 edition of the group photo
I miss Banzan, as well as the art communication room and canteen that are being demolished
"Three Rules of Comedy of the Republic of China" not only reproduces the essence of the comedy of the Republic of China, but also strives to restore the mirror image of people's lives in the 1920s. The three main actors in this round of performances, Xu Baixiao and Sun Yilin, are still the old team members who performed six years ago, and the addition of young actor Wang Jiajun has also brought fresh blood to the whole play. Regrettably, the director of the play, Beijing Renyi young actor and director Ban Zan, died of a sudden heart attack in the autumn of 2019 at the age of 41. In a sense, this performance is also the first time that this play has been staged on the stage of human art after Banzan's death.
Banzan
Banzan in Human Arts
Banzan once said that he has always liked Ding Xilin's one-act plays, "the elegance, wit and humor of the literati of the Republic of China, the rationality, purity and cuteness of the intellectuals, small and interesting, light and flavorful." In his view, Ding Xilin's one-act plays are almost nothing in the living room of the idle and rich class," His works are not so much stormy and strong revolutionary passion, but more of a personal writing that is beyond the times and politics. For these three comedies, Banzan once said that he liked "Drunk" the most, "It is the most thoughtful, the most literary, spiritually oriented, and the most metaphysical one in the "Three Comedies of the Republic of Ding Xilin". ”
Banzan once summed up "Three Rules of Comedy" with "cultural nostalgia", hoping to regard the appreciation process of this drama as a nostalgic journey, so he also made a reflection on his directing work, enriching the relationship between drama through symbols, virtual gestures and other means as an expansion of the realist route. "What I wanted to convey at the beginning of my intention was the Chinese's cherishing of inner communication, the desire for free nature and soul mate, and the kind of human cultivation that was meandering. I want to express the sacredness of the connection between people and the preciousness of communication. ”
Banzan is also fully aware of the difficulty of rehearsing Tincillin's comedies, "His theatrical works are highly literary, pursuing atmosphere, human touch and subtext. Almost every character has a second or even a third plan. This puts forward high requirements for both the director and the performance, not only to have a distinct character image, a vivid character language, but also to construct a witty, natural and pleasant character relationship in a limited space, but also to have a proper sense of age, to create an impression of the Republic of China and the taste of the Republic of China recognized by the audience. ”
After Banzan's death in 2019, the official public account of Beijing Renyi issued a tribute. The article writes that the people of Beijing like Banzan, not only because of his love of art, but also because of his love of life... "He is good at cooking, willing to delve into food, in the Chinese opera canteen, his invention of 'Banzan fried rice' has been on the menu for many years, and many chinese opera descendants in the theater have long been famous... Where there is him, there is art, there is life, there is endless laughter. ”
Beijing Renyi used to be a canteen
Humanities communication room
On April 30, the day of the premiere, the human arts communication room and canteen located in the north side of the Capital Theatre were demolished, and it is said that in the future, it will become a driveway to the CaoYu Theater (under construction). When it comes to the Renyi Canteen, it is another place with a story. In the past few decades, it has not only provided employees with three meals a day and supper, but also many media colleagues have spoken here and chatted with artists while eating and chatting, and completed one interview after another. Now, with the end of the nightly "Three Comedies of the Republic of China", when the audience walks out of the Renyi Experimental Theater and sees people going to the empty canteen, the communication room, and the two big locust trees that are covered, they are always a little frightened...
Editor-in-Charge: Liang Jia
Proofreader: Yan Zhang