The Lao She Theatre Festival brings 20 good plays and introduces immersive drama for the first time

　　With the premiere of the opening drama "Activity Transforms into Human Form", the 5th Lao She Drama Festival 2021 kicked off this Friday at the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center. With the mission of creating a cultural business card of "Big Drama to See Beijing" and the theme of "With the Times and One Heart with the People", this year's Lao She Drama Festival will set up three major sections: repertoire exhibition, theme forum and drama teahouse, which will bring more than 20 domestic and foreign drama masterpieces, more than 30 performances and 9 wonderful professional forums and drama activities. This year's theater festival will run through the autumn and last until the end of October, bringing a variety of theatrical cultural experiences to the citizens of Beijing and Tianjin.

　　The 2021 5th Lao She Drama Festival repertoire exhibition and performance has six major units: "Literature Theater", "Masterpiece Theater", "Hundred Flowers Theater", "HD Screening", "Immersive Theater" and "College Theater". Among them, the "Literary Theater" section will show the audience the sparks generated by the collision of literature and drama through three theatrical works adapted from literary masterpieces, which are adapted from Wang Meng's novel "Activity Transforms into Human Form", Ma Boyong's novel "Two Beijing Fifteen Days" and Lu Xun's novel "Diary of a Madman".

　　The "Masterpiece Theatre" section will bring three works that have been tempered on stage and have been recognized by audiences in terms of both word-of-mouth and market, including "Confused Drama Class" produced by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, "Li Bai", a classic retained work of Beijing People's Art Theatre, and "Goodbye" directed by Liu Tianqi, a young screenwriter and director who has emerged in recent years. "Hundred Flowers Theater" is a new exhibition unit set up this year, taking the meaning of "a hundred flowers blooming, a hundred schools of thought contending", including a variety of drama forms in addition to drama, this year a total of four masterpieces were shortlisted, including Beijing's only local opera drama named by Mr. Lao She, Beijing opera "Tea House", the local traditional opera Lu opera "Three Filial Pieties" in Anhui Province, which was selected as a national intangible cultural heritage, as well as the musical "Water Day" and the family musical "The Disappearing Dragon Girl Wedding Dress of the Great Monster in the Forbidden City".

　　This year, the "HD Screening" section features "Taming the Taming", "Romeo and Juliet" produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" produced by the National Theatre, and the adaptation of the famous book "Pride and Prejudice" produced by silicon valley theatre workshops. The "Immersive Theater" unit is an important breakthrough in the pursuit of innovation and change in this year's Lao She Drama Festival, and will perform the large-scale immersive reality drama "Beiyang Sherlock" produced by the Northern Immersive Performing Arts Creation and Design Center at the Tianjin branch venue, allowing the audience to feel the atmosphere of the Republic of China era and launch an immersive drama adventure in the former residence of Fan Zhuzhai in Tianjin full of Republican style. The "College Theater" unit is a new measure to help the youth drama power of the Lao She Drama Festival, and a total of 7 drama works from 7 colleges and universities were selected this time.

　　Speaking of the difference between this drama festival and the past, Zhang Haijun, chairman of The North Performing Arts Company, said: "This Lao She Drama Festival is the one with the most plays ever, the number of plays has nearly doubled compared with the past, and the variety of plays has also increased, while maintaining our consistent adherence to the quality of the repertoire. This will be an important step for the Lao She Theatre Festival to upgrade the 'file expansion'. ”

　　In response to the national Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy and expand the regional influence of the theater festival, this year's theater festival also set up a Sub-venue in Tianjin for the first time to radiate the brand influence of the Lao She Theater Festival to the Tianjin area. At that time, beijing and Tianjin will present a number of high-quality works, and for the first time introduce a new form of immersive theater in the theater festival. In this regard, Mr. Lao She's daughter Shu Ji sighed: "Tianjin is not only a close neighbor of Beijing, but also a capital of qu art, and Mr. Lao She's drama and qu art have a profound connection. She recalled emotionally: "This time Tianjin joined the Lao She Drama Festival, which reminded me of a speech by Mr. Lao She. It was in 1963 that Mr. Lao She went to Tianjin to teach young people who loved literature how to write novels and plays, and the title of this speech was "Ben Gu Zhi Rong". The five-year-old Lao She Drama Festival is at a time of strengthening the foundation and developing and prospering. Here, to borrow the four words 'Ben Gu Zhi Rong', I wish the smooth development of the Lao She Drama Festival and the complete success of the Fifth Lao She Drama Festival! ”

Source Beijing Evening News

Reporter Wang Run

Process Editor Wu Yue