At two o'clock in the afternoon, the sunlight will dry the leaves of the camphor trees into a transparent green, and the metal roof will be bright and dazzling, like a stage headlight, "Welcome to the performance site of "No. 19 Wukang Road", the whole play takes about 110 minutes, a total of 1.3 kilometers on foot, starting from the Shanghai Song Qingling Former Residence Memorial Hall and ending at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center. On October 15, "No. 19 Wukang Road" premiered at the Memorial Hall of Song Qingling's Former Residence. On weekdays, the memorial is still full of tourists, but the audience of "19 Wukang Road" is different, wearing hood-style headphones and the voice of the little girl "Lin Huixin" in the headphones to start the outdoor immersive performance.
Walking out of the Song Qingling Former Residence Memorial Hall, a few steps ahead is the famous Wukang Building, where people are taking pictures from all angles. The audience was distracted until the roar of "Down with Japanese imperialism" sounded in their ears, took off their headphones, looked at the right rear where the sound came from, and there was no one, put on the headphones, and the surging anti-Japanese march slogan sounded again. In the surround sound, the actor uses Wukang Road as the stage to play the story of Lin Huixin, a little girl who lived on Wukang Road from 1931 to 1949, waiting for her father to return from the revolution.
In the past 2 hours of the performance, the audience passed by important historical buildings on Wukang Road, including the former residence of Song Qingling, the Wukang Building, the Shangying Actors Troupe, the Ba Jin Former Residence, the Cape Town Apartment, the Midan Apartment, etc. At No. 395 Wukang Road, "Zhou Xuan" sang on the balcony and pulled the audience to take a group photo. At 113 Wukang Road, Ba Jin's former residence staged the story of "Home", the fine pebble wall was covered with green vines, and the staff reminded the audience to stay away from the lawn being maintained. Everyone stepped back, staring at the actors, and while they were prepared, they sprayed anti-mosquito spray on their legs and arms. Other performances took place on the road: actresses in cheongsam whispered and exchanged letters at the corner coffee shop; opposite Dongxin Restaurant at 98 Wukang Road, people in black uniforms hunted down revolutionaries.
People walking on Wukang Road are well-informed, calmly facing the cameras and actors who "crossed" decades ago. Someone dragged a suitcase through the crowd; someone walked and laughed, "This group of people are wearing the same headphones from our company"; others picked up their phones and quickly took a few photos and then "evacuated". The audience was deeply immersed in the joys and sorrows of the "Lin Huixin" family, panoramic stereo sound, live-action performances and interactive experiences, creating the spiritual history of Shanghainese in the beacon years. Perpetual architecture and the flow of time meander between the past and the present.
"19 Wukang Road" is a well-known project for the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center. Since 2018, Shanglao has launched an immersive series of performances of "City Roaming", creating stories exclusive to urban memory, including "Remote Sensing City" with Xuhui District in Shanghai as the performance venue, and "Sound into Gusu Pingjiang" with Suzhou as the performance venue. "No. 19 Wukang Road" was written by Yu Rongjun and directed by Wang Haiying, and sold out in 5 seconds. The audience showed strong interest in the novel cultural and tourism combination project, which the crew summarized as "the charm of drama + Wukang Road".
The story of "Lin Huixin" ends on the third floor of the upper speech, and she waits for the liberation of Shanghai and the return of her father. Walking out of the Upper Talk Building, twilight has not yet fallen. The box office LED screen on the right side of the door scrolls through a series of recent plays. The audience who ate a full meal took a few sips of coffee, returned from the vortex of history and reality, and began a new round of dreamy experience.
On Wukang Road, it is more attractive to enter the theater than to watch a movie. During the 10 days of the performance of "No. 19 Wukang Road", the theaters of the Shangyu Building were "new" at the same time. On the evening of October 14, the first comedy of the "League of Comedians" label "I Don't Want to Be Friends with You" directed by He Nian and starring Qian Fang, Zhou Ye, Liu Xuanrui and Wang Jiabao was premiered. The snow-covered stage and the youth campus in memory gradually became clear, and friendship, family affection, and love made the audience laugh and laugh and cry. The stage has been snowing for a long time, the play is over, the ground is thick with a layer of snow, high-altitude water towers, slides, moving bridges, father and daughter chatting on snowy mountains, looking like a nostalgic playground.
The small theater's "Ice Peacock" touched on the current fashionable topic, and the body of the female star "Little Peacock" was sent to the coroner's room. Forensics, police officers, journalists, the deceased's mother and husband took turns, but the cause of her death became increasingly mysterious. In a world surrounded by reality TV and live mobile phones, "Little Peacock" has never appeared, but she has been with her in the stories of forensics, police, and journalists. "Ice Peacock" is the first work successfully incubated by the "New Text Incubation" program of Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center. On October 16, Yu Rongjun, artistic director of Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and screenwriter of "No. 19 Wukang Road", will also share his creative experience with Cheng Yuemin, screenwriter of "Ice Peacock". After the Shanghai show, "Ice Peacock" will appear at the Hangzhou Canal Grand Theatre on November 5 and 6.
From day to night, from Wukang Road to Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, 8 hours surrounded by drama are rich and long-lasting.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Shi Chenlu
Source: Author: Zhuge Yi