The Paper's reporter Pan Yu
On the evening of October 14, the original fantasy campus romantic comedy "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 staged at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center. At the scene of the performance, many audiences laughed continuously during the performance, but they laughed and laughed to see crying, and many people walked out of the theater and said that this play laughed and cried, and used up a pack of tissues.
"I don't want to be friends with you" poster
The drama was the first production of the "League of Comedians" label. At the beginning of 2021, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and Joy Media joined forces to jointly create a new creative body - "Comedian Alliance": with localized original comedy works as the core, focusing on high-quality comedy content, creating mature offline comedy works, and providing high-quality and character comedy experiences for theater audiences across the country.
The "League of Comedians" label is artistic director He Nian, director of Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center. Over the years, He Nian's works have always been full of the sense of the times and topicality, funny and humorous, close to life, and have a strong resonance with the current young people. As the first work of the "League of Comedians", he Nian's "I Don't Want to Be Friends with You" has also attracted much attention.
Stills from "I Don't Want to Be Friends with You"
"I Don't Want to Be Friends with You" is adapted from the TV series of the same name, telling a comedic, warm and bloody youth story: Li Jinjin, a high school student who has been dependent on his mother since childhood, traveled to 20 years ago because of a fantasy trip, met his mother Li Qingtong when he was a student and became friends with her. Because of the difference in the times and personalities, the two made all kinds of jokes, and also walked hand in hand through the era of sweet and bitter bloody youth.
Lead actor Qian Fang is also the planner of the play. During the epidemic last year, she was deeply moved by this TV series, so she invited her long-time partner and friend He Nian to jointly plan a stage play version. Prior to this, the two had cooperated in a number of hilarious comedies that spread across the country, such as "Deer Ding", "Wulin Wai Biography", "Romeo and Zhu Yingtai", and "21 Carats", and cooperated again after many years, and both of them had grown up in addition to tacit understanding. On the night of the premiere, Qian Fang said after the performance that she hoped to create some comedy works different from the past on the stage with He Nian, and also hoped that after watching this play, the audience could laugh and cry and walk out of the theater, with some aftertaste, and also have some new thoughts about life.
"I don't want to be friends with you" is a comedy of "funny and tear-inducing Northeastern flavor", and the intergenerational relationship between mother and daughter is the core of the whole play. At the same time, it is also warm, delicate and truly restores the common youth memory of the post-80s and post-90s generations.
Director He Nian said: "Compared with the TV series, the stage version of "I Don't Want to Be Friends with You" gives full play to the stage assumptions, the time is more condensed, the dramatic conflict is more intense, and the daughter's 'task' of traveling back to the past is more concentrated. We hope to condense the essence of the original drama with innovative ideas and techniques to bring the audience a new experience. If ten years ago I was after theatrical effect, now I want more of a psychic feeling after the audience leaves the scene. ”
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang