Stills from the show. Courtesy of Beijing Renyi
People's Daily Beijing, April 25 (Liu Yingying) Since April 23, the Beijing ren art comedy "Raisins in the Sun" has once again appeared on the stage of the Capital Theatre. This new work, which was created last year, ushered in the second round of polishing. Director Yingda returned with the original team members Wang Xihua, Jin Han, Xu Jingyao, Xu Cenzi, Zhang Fuyuan, Wang Ning, Chen Hongxu, A Nan and Wang Kun, which not only made the audience feel infected by the humorous comedy plot in the play, but also felt the humanistic care across time, space and culture.
Raisins in the Sun is a well-deserved world-famous play written by African-American playwright Loren Hansberg and staged on Broadway in 1959 to great success. Later, Yingda's mother, the Beijing artist and translator Wu Shiliang, discovered that the work translated it into Chinese. The work depicts a poor African-American family in contemporary Chicago who receive a large sum of insurance money after the death of their elderly father. This huge amount of money that can turn life around makes every member of the family have different expectations, so conflicts, contradictions and external discrimination from within the family are generated... Although the background and plot of the story are some distance from the Chinese audience, the humanity and reality dilemma shown in the work can resonate with the audience. Many viewers humorously compared it to the "sequel" to the classic "Death of a Salesman" after watching it – to see what would happen to the family after receiving insurance money.
Since it is a comedy, it is not difficult for Yingda, who has rich creative experience, but he admits that the creation of this comedy is not easy, and it is a challenge for the director. "It's hard because the humor is not on the surface, but in the meaning of the language, in the character of the characters. We not only need to tell the story clearly, but also need to play each process clearly, so that the audience can understand the plot and understand the characters, in order to laugh from the bottom of our hearts. ”
Through the stage practice of the first round of performances, during the rehearsal process, the directors and actors have made new attempts and adjustments, not only adding a lot of performance details, but also further digging into the script, showing the complexity and layering of the characters, so that the audience can feel the rich intentions of the creators in just a few hours. "Comedy needs to be constantly polished, and the comedic effects that I promise the audience will continue to show." Indah said.
Without the tone and makeup of foreign dramas, this work presents a more lifelike atmosphere on stage. Whether it is the mother played by Wang Xihua, or the son played by Jin Han, the daughter-in-law played by Xu Jingyao, the daughter played by Xu Cenzi, etc., the shaping of the roles by the actors in the play allows the audience who are familiar with their stage image to see the creation and breakthrough of a performance. The actors' grasp and understanding of comedy not only allows the audience to understand the humorous elements of the play at any time and laugh, but also ignores the different skin colors and cultural backgrounds of the characters in the play, completely enters the life depicted on the stage, and makes life choices with the people in the play.
The round will run until May 9. In conjunction with this performance, the book of the same name, which contains the script of "Raisins in the Sun", was also released at the Capital Theatre. Director Yingda said that editing and publishing this work and putting it on the stage of human art can be said to have fulfilled the wish of the translator of this work, his mother Wu Shiliang, "In addition to the script, there are also comments about the work and some precious pictures in the book." I will sign for the audience in the hall of the Capitol Theatre, hoping that the audience will walk into the theater and talk to us in the play and the book. ”
Source: People's Daily News