Tonight, the Chinese editions of the drama "Truth" and "Lies" produced by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center returned to the Anfu Road stage tonight and December 29, respectively, these two independent and interdependent comedies delicately and cruelly from different angles to how hypocrisy and lies maintain the relationship between husband and wife and friends. The Chinese version of "Truth" and "Lie" in this round is still directed by Tian Shui, Fu Zhonghao, the young director of Shangjiao, serves as the rehearsal director, and Chen Jiaoying, Ma Qingli, Wang Zi, and Xu Shengnan, four powerful actors.
"The Truth", performed by Xu Shengnan, Ma Qingli, Chen Jiaoying and Wang Zi, will take the lead on the stage tonight. As a well-known comedy in Shanghai, although the play has been performed for three consecutive years, the audience is still full of enthusiasm for buying tickets. The script peels off the onion-like laughter layer by layer, rekindling people's thinking about the relationship between marriage.
It is worth mentioning that "The Truth" and "Lies" will open the New Year's Eve on the evening of December 31, and will be staged in turn on the same night, giving the audience a lively viewing experience. At the same time, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center has also carefully prepared a series of theater activities and delicious snacks for the audience to accompany everyone through the tail end of 2020. After the performance, the audience will count down the New Year's Eve with the upper talk in the theater to welcome the first day of the New Year in 2021.
Screenwriter Florian Zeller is one of the most sought-after novelists and playwrights of contemporary France. His works have been translated into many Chinese, and many of his plays have won the Molière Prize and the highest award of the French Theatre Festival. Zeller's most famous work, titled "Father", won the "Molière Award" for best work, as well as the "Lawrence Oliver Award" and "Tony Award" double best work nominations, is a highly evaluated work in recent years. Another feature of Zeller's works is that he often writes "antonyms dramas": for example, "Father" and "Mother" have been staged continuously on stage, and another pair of works is "Truth" and "Lies" brought to Shanghai audiences this year.
The Truth premiered worldwide in 2011, and at the 2017 Lawrence Oliver Awards ceremony, the show did not win the title but also received a nomination for Best Comedy, and received much attention and praise. The British "Guardian" commented: "'The Truth' is as smooth as a dance, the plot is constantly spinning on the tip of the toes, it is disturbing, it is hilarious, and it is a must-see performance - written in shallowness with deep meaning." ”
Between 2017 and 2018, the Chinese version of "The Truth" was hard to find for the first time on the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, and then there was no shortage of audiences who brushed two and three brushes. At the beginning of 2020, "The Truth" and its "twin" work "Lie" alternated for the first time, and were analyzed and presented in more depth from different levels. The reversal of "like riding a roller coaster" was deeply resonated and reverberated by the audience. At the end of 2020, as soon as the two works were ticketed, they attracted much attention.
Although the two plays "share" characters and relationships, they are two stories that can be completely "taken apart" independently, and at the same time, the opposing topics of "truth and lies" are discussed from different angles: in the complex relationship between two couples, a pair of friends, and four people in the play, they do not know whether the lies out of love are necessary, and whether the confession is a witness to love. When lies are intertwined, they are so enigma that they can't figure out what the truth is.
When talking about his views on truth and lies in intimate relationships, director Tian Shui said that he hopes to convey to the audience: "Even if you discover the truth of life, the complexity of human nature, it may be difficult, even cruel; but no matter how desperate you experience, don't lose the courage to continue living." ”
The stage set of the 2020 version of "Truth" and "Lies" intends to use smooth, rhythmic scene transitions to drive the development of the plot, so the way of turnstage is chosen to present different scenes. Especially in the first three scenes of "The Truth", the actors in the play will enter three rooms in a row, lie on three beds, and communicate with two different women, and the fluidity of the turntable makes it an interesting moving picture. In the arrangement of the space, as far as possible to restore the size of the real home space and the arrangement of furniture, the lighting will also use the effect of home lights instead of stage lamps.
Stills were provided by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center
Author: Tong Weijing
Editor: Wu Yu