On October 23, 2023, the drama "Liang Zhu" was staged for the first time in the framed stage theater of the Theater Center of the Changping Campus of the Central Academy of Drama. The drama "Liang Zhu" takes the pursuit of love and freedom as the theme, carefully constructs a legendary love story between Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, showing their pure friendship and unyielding spirit of fighting for the pursuit of free love. The play is written by Chen Xiaoling, a professor of the Department of Drama Literature of the Central Academy of Drama, Li Shan, deputy secretary of the Party Branch of the Director Department, and Liu Xinglin, a professor of the Department of Stage Art, as the stage design.

Inheriting classics: Exploring new rhymes in traditional stories

Everyone is familiar with the story of "Brother Zhu", but this time the creative team of the Central Academy of Drama did not simply repeat it. Screenwriter Chen Xiaoling said: "This story is still moving after thousands of years. What we need to do is to find the connection between it and the modernity and let the classics shine new brilliance today." So, the creative team focused on the core plots of "swedish pilgrimage to the grass pavilion", "three years of classmate", "sending each other for 18", "meeting again", and "turning into butterflies".

In the scene of "Caoting Swedish", a light rain made Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai meet in Caoting. After asking, the two of them also went to Lingshan Academy to become disciples. After the rain, the sky was clear, and the rainbow hanged in the sky. Zhu Yingtai said cheerfully: "Since we are going to Lingshan Academy together, you and my brother were born on the same year, month and day. Why not be sworn brothers?" The two of them solemnly bowed to the heaven and earth. This worship is not only the beginning of the love between classmates, but also a witness to the mutual attraction of the two souls.

"Bao Liang" strives to create the beauty of Chinese poetry on the stage. The characters use a lot of poetry and allusions, and arrange for the singular team to interpret it repeatedly, so that the spring breeze and rain are moistened silently, so that the audience present can feel the charm of the excellent traditional Chinese culture; on the other hand, the play focuses on the connection between tradition and modernity, and Ma Wencai, Zhu Father and Zhu Mother, as oppressive forces in the social environment, always emphasizes the dependent status of women. The love between Liang and Zhu is not only a pursuit of freedom and equality, but also an active resistance to life difficulties, urging modern people to dare to break free from constraints and pursue freedom and perfection.

Innovative expression: a new stage exploration that integrates diverse art

In order to make "Brother Zhu" show its unique charm on the stage, the creative team boldly innovated and integrated various performance forms such as opera, dance, and drama.

"Turning into Butterfly" is undoubtedly the climax of the whole play. On the stage, the lights gradually dimmed and the two dancers began a three-minute uninterrupted dance. Their bodies sometimes entangle each other and sometimes dance separately, echoing the changing sets around them. With the excitement of the music, the pictures on the whiteboard gradually switch from bamboo forests and plum blossoms to the carved panel of "Zhuang Zhou Dream Butterfly", as if the whole world was immersed in this fantasy atmosphere. Actor Gao Zifeng said that the final presentation of Liang Zhu’s story is “turning into butterflies”, so in the specific performance, the drama “Liang Zhu” removed the concept of “grave”, and used more stage transformation to show another continuation of the two’s lives.

In terms of sound design, "Brief Zhu" uses traditional Chinese folk music as the main soundtrack, which is in line with the progress of the plot, either sad and lingering, beautiful and flowing, or urgent and tense. While achieving the balance of sound energy, the show boldly breaks through the traditional framework. On the premise of the overall basis of folk music, the drama innovatively used rock electronic music in the "playing Cuju", and the change in tone brought auditory freshness to the audience.

The entire stage style is simple and concise, presenting a simple geometric layout. From a spatial perspective, there is a naked theater around it, with symbolic stage props such as red frames and three-color balls arranged in it, leaving blank space for the audience in an abstract way. With the cooperation of multimedia, the stage is full of elements of Chinese traditional culture, creating a subtle and romantic artistic conception, and pursuing a charm that resembles things and is simple.

"When we rehearsed this repertoire, we adopted the method of Chinese poetic aesthetics, adopted minimalist sets, and used multi-faceted fusion forms such as opera, dance and drama performance to create a new form of stage play." Li Shan said that we hope to convey the sincere wish of "true feelings, true feelings and true love" to the audience.

Educational practice: inheriting cultural turbulence on the stage

The creation process of "Liang Zhu" is also a rare educational practice. During the process of creating and distributing "Liang Zhu", students were guided to learn the body rhythm of opera through the presentation and director creation classes, and to understand the profound connotation and unique charm of China's excellent traditional culture from traditional opera, and to teach students a good "practical class".

Liang Songqing, a master's student in the 2023 class of the Musical Department, played Zhu Yingtai. When she recalled the days of rehearsal, she was filled with emotion: "Starting from the early stage of rehearsal, we started from the basic posture of training opera, found a basis from ancient literary classics, and slowly learned how an ancient Chinese literati should walk, sit and stand, and speak, so that we actors can gradually get closer to the role."

The implicit and surging emotions of Liang and Zhu in the play "Eighteen Sends" are better reflected through the reference and application of traditional opera elements. For example, the simple action of walking the two silently along the mountain road is incorporated into the elements of opera steps, and the actors delicately show the flow of inner emotions in this situation through different steps. In this process, the students not only improved their performance skills, but also realized the profound connotation of China's excellent traditional culture from traditional opera.

Today, "Brother Zhu" has left wonderful footprints on multiple stages, participating in the international exhibition of the 2023 World Drama Education Alliance, and won three awards: "Best Repert Award", "Best Performance Award" and "Excellent Performance Award"; in November 2023, it participated in the Guilin Art Festival and performed two performances at the Guilin Grand Theater; in December, it participated in the "New Era Campus Drama International Exchange Exhibition" hosted by the Chinese Drama Association and the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and received unanimous praise from experts and audiences. In 2024, "Battle of Liang" was selected as the original cultural masterpiece of Beijing university campuses.

[Editor in charge: Yue Xiangzhi]