Cultural viewpoint | a new version of the classic drama "Sunrise" of renyi was launched, presenting N possibilities

"Sunrise", which will be staged at the Beijing International Drama Center on September 2, has been polished for more than three months and is the longest rehearsal time in Beijing Renyi recently. The picture shows the stage design of "Sunrise".

In the Cao Yu Theater of the Newly Built Beijing International Theater Center of the Beijing People's Art Theater, bells ring, starlight tops are gradually extinguished, a table and two chairs are erected on the stage of the curtain, lanterns are sprinkled with a vague red light, the black screens on both sides project two faces of the Republic of China women, knocking, shouting, laughing and laughing are mixed, "Cuixi" and "little things" and other people come on the stage in turn...

"Wait, is this lantern going to be turned up a little higher?" "This projection is too high, it must be adjusted!" The director of the play, Feng Yuanzheng, sat in the audience seat in the middle, adjusting the details such as lighting, props, and actor positions with the staff next to him from time to time, and then paced to the side of the stage to examine the viewing effect of each position.

This is the rehearsal scene for the new version of Sunrise. Since the creation of the group, "Sunrise" has been polished for more than 3 months, and it is the longest rehearsal time of Beijing Renyi in recent times. The play will be staged at the Beijing International Drama Center on September 2, how to retain the connotation of Cao Yu's original work while excavating its contemporaryity? How to present a realistic classic in a new stage vocabulary? How will the young lead actors take on complex and distinct roles? Between rehearsals, Feng Yuanzheng and some of the main actors accepted an exclusive interview with this reporter and took us to watch the people who "lived in a narrow cage" in advance.

"Sunrise is the most possible"

Beijing International Theatre Center has a total area of 23,000 square meters, with three floors above ground and four floors underground, including two professional drama theaters, one middle school and one small theater, as well as functional spaces such as rehearsal, creation and makeup. In order to pay tribute to Mr. Cao Yu, the old director of Renyi and the famous playwright, the main theater in the Beijing International Theater Center was named Cao Yu Theater. "Sunrise" was the opening play after the completion of the Capital Theater in the 1950s, and the upcoming new version of "Sunrise" will once again open the curtain of the new theater.

Picking up the burden of rearranging "Sunrise", Feng Yuanzheng felt very honored, but also under great pressure. Ren Yi has performed four versions of "Sunrise" before, how to present this classic without falling into a trap? Feng Yuanzheng first spent a month studying the script, and compared the script of "Sunrise" in the 1950s with the various versions that were staged later, so as to design an opening and ending that was different from the traditional narrative, and adjusted some of the plot. Unlike previous versions, Feng Yuanzheng put the end of the 50s script at the beginning of the new play - Chen Bailu had taken sleeping pills, and Fang Dasheng knocked on her door and asked: "Zhu Jun, have you slept?" Why don't you let the sun in? "I started with a flashback, hoping to get the audience to jump out and then get in." In addition, he also designed a more freehand ending: the vertical wall for projection in the center of the stage was flipped over into a wall of light filled with lights, chen Bailu read "The sun rises, the darkness stays behind, the sun is not ours, we have to sleep", and then disappears into the wall of light. "I want to express that although Chen Bailu ended her life, she has also been brilliant and pursued true love, although true love may be as fleeting as this light." Feng Yuanzheng said.

The new version of "Sunrise" also gives a new explanation of "the last straw that crushed Chen Bailu". Some previous versions have deleted the plot of Chen Bailu's loan from Zhang George and being rejected in the original script, and Feng Yuanzheng deliberately added this plot to the new drama, not only to lay the groundwork for the economic pressure chen Bailu faces, but also to show that the indifference between people and Chen Bailu's loneliness and helplessness are the root causes of her disillusionment. The discussion of human relations and the reflection on unknowable fate are also contemporary themes that the new version of "Sunrise" focuses on in addition to the social critical significance of the original work. "I think 'Sunrise' is actually Mr. Cao Yu's most modern play." Feng Yuanzheng said: "The tragedies and fates of the characters in the classics of "Thunderstorm" and "Beijingers" often have to be understood in a specific historical context, but many of the plots in "Sunrise" can be linked to contemporary society, and its presentation is the most possible."

"Multiple possibilities" is also reflected in the exploration and innovation of stage vocabulary. The new version of Sunrise not only has an original, modern soundtrack, but also creates a real stage with the help of lighting, projection and even GoPro cameras. In the rehearsal of the first act, the reporter saw that the huge stage simply stood a sofa, a low stool with a telephone and a fluorescent wine cabinet, and the standing wall in the center of the stage was projected with snow-white frost, and the frost changed into water, gushing down, giving people a feeling of floating emptiness. In the second act, the frost on the standing wall turns into a fish, swimming back and forth. "I would say that beautiful things are as fleeting as this frost, and all the people in the play are like a fish trapped in a tank, they are not free." 」 Feng Yuanzheng explained. Behind the curtain on both sides of the stage, the figures of several mahjong players run through the second act, and the scene of Cuixi "picking up" and searching for small things in Baohe and the lower part is also performed behind the screen, and the plot of multiple time and space is parallel, the performance space of the stage is expanded, and the audience also seems to be in the sky, overlooking the people in the play with the "Eye of God". "I wanted to create a simple, disparate stage effect." Feng Yuanzheng said.

Young actors act as beams

In addition to the actor Yu Zhen, who plays Pan Yueting, who is an "old familiar face", "Sunrise" almost all uses young actors. Feng Yuanzheng recalled that he was less than 24 years old when he was selected by director Xia Chun to star in Zeng Wenqing in "Beijinger", "When you see good seedlings, you must give them a chance." Sooner or later, these young people will have to pick up the talents in the future, and they may as well do it earlier."

Who will play the charismatic and complex Chen Bailu? Feng Yuanzheng chose Lu Lu, born in 1997, to play this role - "First of all, because her appearance conditions are very suitable, and secondly, we think that she has the characteristics of Chen Bailu, and when we first recruited her into the human arts, we had the idea of letting her try this role." ”

To pick up the beam, Lu Lu felt very excited at first, but after entering the rehearsal, the pressure gradually increased. "Chen Bailu needs to have an aura and be able to control others with ease, so when playing against other actors who are more experienced than me, I will be stressed." In order to figure out the mood of the characters, Lu Lu read a lot of video materials and novels from the era in the play, and on weekdays in life, the director will ask her to pay attention to her body and posture, and even invite a ballroom dance teacher for the actors to let her be in a "character state" at all times, and Feng Yuanzheng will also inspire her to understand the role based on her own experience.

"For example, in the last scene where Chen Bailu committed suicide by taking drugs, some versions in the past were performed crying bitterly." Lu Lu said, "But the director told me that the people who really want to die are actually very calm, and chen Bailu is also, she resisted but it was useless, so she decided to let herself stay at the most beautiful age, which is a relief for her." Without hoarseness and crying, Chen Bailu, played by Lu Lu, calmly walked into the "wall of light" and disappeared into the dark night.

Why did she say this line? What does this sentence mean? At the rehearsal scene, Feng Yuanzheng never directly told the actors how to act, but always asked them "why", letting the actors themselves build their understanding of the role.

Young actor Yang Mingxin plays Fang Dasheng in the play. For this somewhat nerdy character, Yang Mingxin initially felt that this person was "very boring", and later found that Fang Dasheng was a mirror in the play, reflecting all kinds of people in the play, unlike other unchanged people, Fang Dasheng had a collision and change in thinking. In order to portray Fang Dasheng's alienation and literary tone, Yang Mingxin deliberately did not touch anything in the "hotel" on the stage, just as Fang Dasheng looked for hope a little bit in the play, and he also groped out this character little by little in rehearsal. Another extremely complex role in the play, Li Shiqing, is played by actor Lei Jia, and unlike previous performances, he will highlight Li Shiqing's "human" side, such as the love for his wife and children, he always wears a mask, even in front of his family, he can not unload the disguised repressive life, so that the audience hates his cunning and viciousness, and pity his fate.

How will the different interpretations of young actors recreate classics? Let's wait and see. (This newspaper Beijing August 30 special telegram)

Author: Peng Dan, reporter of this newspaper in Beijing

Edit: Jin Jiuchao