On May 11, the opening work of the Beijing People's Art Theater "Classic Remaining Repertoire Repertoire Repertoire Repertoire Repertoire Repertoire", "Returning to the Snowy Night", ended in the first round of performance at the Capital Theater. The play is a classic work created by the famous dramatist Wu Zuguang in 1942. It uses the famous actor Wei Liansheng and the official concubine Yuchun, a pair of "same illness and pity" people, to write their emotional tragedy, as well as the awakening and pursuit of love and dignity. The new version of "Returning to the Snowy Night" selects the love between Liansheng and Yuchun as the main line under the spiritual core of the original work.

Photography/Wang Xiaoning

　　Love, hate, separation, young people today can understand

　　The earliest official performance record of "Returning in the Snowy Night" was in Chongqing in 1943, and then performed in Shanghai and other places, causing a sensation. The first version of Beijing People's Art Theater "Going Back on a Snowy Night" was staged in 1957 and was directed by Xia Chun and co-created and interpreted by performing artists such as Zhang Tong, Yang Wei, Tong Di, and Shu Xiuwen. After 68 years, this classic with deep accumulation has returned.

　　More than 80 years ago, the plot of "Actors and Concubines in Love" may have aroused the curiosity of some viewers, but today the audience's interest and aesthetics have changed a lot. If you act according to that sense of novelty, or the sense of curiosity, it will appear cliché.

　　The creative team of the new version of the People's Art Theater is not aimed at the special identities of the male and female protagonists, as well as plots such as dates and elopement, but about going into the characters' hearts to experience their situation. The problems of identity differences they face in the play are still encountered by young people today. The rivalry between Wei Liansheng and Yuchun fully presents the love and hate separation of a couple: from the indecisive moves when they first met, to the intimacy of each other when they met in the mansion, and then to the determination to break through the siege.

　　The changes in the psychological and relationship between Wei Liansheng and Yuchun are expressed through body language and movement rhythm. Especially the poignant and hopeful dance between the two at the end reminds the audience of the colorful music of "turning into butterflies" in "Brief Zhu". This treatment has made a great breakthrough compared to previous versions of the play. It not only indicates the fusion and rebirth of the two people, but also allows the audience to gain psychological satisfaction - sympathy and expectation for the fate of men and women, and enjoy the overall aesthetic poetic space of the stage.

　　Integrate into Kunqu Opera and also into the texture of Kunqu Opera

　　Incorporating opera aesthetics into drama performances is a major feature of the new version of "Returning to People on the Snowy Night", from which you can feel the elegant and distant texture of Kunqu Opera. The specially designed opera posture in the play provides space for two actors with opera and dance skills.

　　Unlike some stage art works that shape the charm of opera male actors, Liu Heng, as a martial artist in the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, injected the character Wei Liansheng: he can be a fairy in the sky on the outside, but he has Lin Chong's passion and entanglement in his bones. The superposition of identity and temperament between actors and characters in the play makes this character more three-dimensional and multi-faceted.

　　In the first act, Wei Liansheng made his debut with a "play in the play" "The Legend of the Heavenly Girl Scatters Flowers". In the highlight of the second act meeting with Yuchun's study, when Yuchun asked him "who is the most pitiful person", he first covered his face with the posture of a female actor, and then turned around and shook his sleeves with Wu Sheng Yun's hand. Wei Liansheng's psychological changes from confusion to awakening were externalized with concrete actions through the transformation of the opera program.

　　This body language, which is different from the soft male actress on the stage of previous dramas, is more obvious in the scene where the third act agreed to elope. When Wei Liansheng's monologue, his temperament as if he was standing like a pine, contrasted with his trembling thoughts, just like Lin Chong's inner struggle when he ran away. If you give Liu Heng some suggestions, it is that the character Wei Liansheng is a famous Peking Opera actor who is very popular and should have a more charismatic demeanor.

　　In addition, Li Hongtao, who plays Su Hongji in the play, looks particularly mature and steady in "Returning to the Snowy Night", led by a young actor. He has an invisible bird cage in his hand, suppressing the love and humanity of the hero and heroine in the cage. His Kunqu opera "Single Sword Club" complements the character and situation. At the same time, Su Hongji became the most overwhelming figure in the whole drama because of his male authority and official style, which also made the male actress Wei Liansheng less abrupt.

　　The stage is elegant and elegant, both in narrative and expressive

　　The stage design of the play abandons complex concrete scenes and high-tech means, and instead draws inspiration from the tradition of Chinese opera. The idea of ​​artistic director Feng Yuanzheng is, "First of all, let the audience feel pure beauty visually." The stage mainly uses soft scenery to build a freehand space. The drooping veil is adjusted with the changes in the plot and the characters' situation. At the critical point where the male and female protagonists express their ideas with "Sifan" and plan to escape from a distance, the hanging veil spreads and closes and turns into a "wall". The hope of the two of them having a new life is also shattered.

　　Compared with Yan Rui's previous grand theater work "The Wilderness", "Returning to the Snowy Night" is very different. In "The Wilderness", Yan Rui, who is well versed in opera, used many techniques such as Peking Opera's civil and military field, doll sing band, and other techniques. Some obvious symbolic props and objects, as well as the frequent appearance of paper-cut dolls, sometimes make the audience feel a little "full". This time, Yan Rui did subtraction in "Returning on the Snowy Night", without complex scene scheduling, nor did he use too much music to render the atmosphere. This is clearly reflected in the second act of the study private meeting. The body movements and psychological state of the male and female protagonists are more appropriate and clear under the accompaniment of Kunqu Opera's elegant qu flute gongs and drums. This is not only in line with the characteristics of the play itself, but also a continuation and exploration of the Beijing People's Art Theater School of Drama. (Tian Chao)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]