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Drama Examines Dark Road Ahead for Traditional Art
Inspired by stories in the news about traditional Chinese opera singers, Zhao Yaomin, a Shanghai-based playwright, came up with his latest work "Good Times, Beautiful Scenes," which will be staged from April 20 to May 1 at the Shanghai Arts Theatre.
"Traditional Chinese art is in a predicament," Zhao says, "as I try to describe in my play."
The play is about a Kunqu opera singer who has no descendants to inherit the art. Although Wu Yijiao, a famous Kunqu opera singer, is in his 80s, none of his three sons had decided to follow in his footsteps. He has no other choice but to adopt a daughter, Jin Xiu, and teach her the old art.
To Wu's disappointment, his second son Wu Jiyu seduces Jin Xiu and gets her pregnant. In order to give the child a legitimate father, the elder Wu marries Jin Xiu.
Combining dream and reality, the whole play merges the scenes from the Kunqu masterpiece "Peony Pavilion" with real life stories in order to provide a contrast between tradition and modernity.
"Good times and beautiful scenes are disappearing from us," Zhao explains, "they have become something to be acted out instead of to be experienced and lived."
The ending is especially thought-provoking, with Wu Jiyu, the second son who hated the family so much that he left it, returning home at last as a rich merchant.
"He is a rebel in the face of tradition," said Zhao, "but in some sense he represents the one force in the society with the means to save traditional art."
The ending is also reminiscent of "Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekov (1860-1904), a Russian writer of short stories and plays.
The family intends to sell the old house to an unknown rich merchant, only when Wu Jiyu appears do the family members realize that the rich merchant is the second son, who hates the family.
According to Lei Guohua, director of the play, the work discloses three layers of meanings in terms of society, art and symbolism.
The play's social significance lies in the characterization of the three sons who have three different attitudes towards the Kunqu opera; the artistic significance is reflected in the story's contrast between the art and reality; and the symbolic significance lies in the play's examination of the conflict between ideals and reality.
"What I attempt to do is to let the audience understand what is really happening to our traditional art," Lei says.
This is the third co-operation between Lei and Zhao. The previous two were "Looking for Manly Man" and "the Original Sin."
Zhao began to write plays in the 1980s. First establishing himself with the play "Genius and Lunatic," Zhao has become famous for plays like "Sentiments at Midnoon", "Original Sin", "the Last Dream of the Century", "Alarming Clock" and "Pop Singers and Gorillas."
The play's cast is a powerful group, headed by several famous stage actors from Shanghai, including Yan Xiang, Zhou Xiaoli, Xu Chengxian, Ye Mang, Zhang Xiaoming and Fu Zhong.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn)
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