2024 is another magical start. I don’t know where the world will go, and it is full of too many uncertainties. The world is busy running around for a few pieces of silver. As for love, this word has probably become a dream left by the past era.
On January 6, 2024, I drove more than 200 kilometers to Hangzhou Linping Grand Theater on the weekend to attend a play, a play that lasted more than 7 hours, and a "Dream Like a Dream" that spanned time and space.
1. Background introduction
I believe everyone who likes dramas has heard of the drama "Dream Like a Dream", and many people may have watched it more than once.
Judging from the encyclopedia, the world premiere of the play "Like a Dream" seems to have been in 2000.
In fact, the world premiere of "Like a Dream" was on February 23 and 24, 2000, produced and performed by the Department of Drama at the University of California, Berkeley. However, this version was only three and a half hours long, and was all performed in English.
On May 18th and 19th, 2000, the full version premiered at Baodao University of the Arts. This version has a total duration of 8 hours.
What I watched this time was the Yanghua version of "A Dream Like a Dream". This version was planned and produced in 2013 by the famous producer Wang Keran. The screenwriter and director is Lai Shengchuan. This version is about seven and a half hours, compared to the original eight The hourly version has been somewhat reduced.
2. What story does "A Dream Like a Dream" tell?
Zhuangzi's dream of a butterfly is a widely circulated story. "A Dream Like a Dream" borrows a patient's story before his death, and slowly tells the story along with the patient's memories. Unfolding, in the patient's story, it seems like a dream that spans time and space. In this dream, there is Taipei, Shanghai, Paris, the 1930s, the count, Wang Debao, and Gu Xianglan. Fly, here is the bird that wants to be free. After experiencing countless hardships, Gu Xianglan finally let go and said, "Don't worry, I will live well!".
From the story structure, the plot is circular, with the patient telling the story. In order to solve the mystery of his life, the patient in the story embarked on a journey. This journey touched another dream. After passing through Gu Xianglan's dream, the patient understood his mystery, "I think I remember, I think I forgot." ”, those mysterious quantum tunnels hit the dying patients.
The story is not the key. The key is that after the audience watches the drama immersively, they cannot avoid having more thoughts and insights about life, life, death, and love. So why does this drama guide the audience? This has to talk about the art form of "Dream Like a Dream".
3. Lotus Seat
In "A Dream Like a Dream", why can the Lotus Seat satisfy the demands of this drama?
For traditional dramas, "Dream Like a Dream" re-innovates the traditional stage structure. In "A Dream Like a Dream", there are lotus seats opposite the stage that are different from the traditional audience. These seats are in the middle of the stage. They work closely with the three-story annular stage that matches the whole play. If you start from the stage Observed from above, this arrangement is somewhat similar to a ring. This design itself embodies the underlying philosophical thinking of the play in the stage form.
For the audience, in the Lotus Seat, the audience and the actors have only one body position recently. This close distance is a breakthrough in the previous stage design, and therefore, the audience can feel more of the spiritual feelings brought by the actors' performances.
As a spectator at the Lotus Seat, you can see a tear streaking across the corner of Patient No. 5's eyes, and you can smell the fragrance of the actress in the ten-mile foreign market. It seems that you are in such a place of fireworks, and you can carefully observe Zhang Han Those brow microexpressions, you can clearly hear those subtle sounds.
This special stage design allows the audience to follow the story and experience the dream-like scenes.
Therefore, if you have the conditions and opportunity, you must try the Lotus Seat in "A Dream Like a Dream". I believe that this choice will definitely bring you a completely different theater viewing experience.
The first half is dominated by Patient No. 5, played by Zhang Han, and the second half is dominated by Gu Xianglan, played by Xu Qing.
Lai Shengchuan said that what he gives the audience is not an opportunity to escape reality, but an opportunity for the audience to face reality directly, so that they can have inner thinking after watching it.
sat in the lotus seat, followed director Lai Shengchuan and the actors, from afternoon to midnight, more than 7 hours, such an expensive "dream but not a dream". After coming out, I looked up at the stars and refused to fall asleep for a long time.
Thanks to director Lai Shengchuan for the stage design, the seats in the lotus pond are not only closer, but also closer, as if you are in the painting, not just a person watching the painting. This immersive look and feel is multi-faceted. The smell of the ocean from the Normandy lake, the lights, and the smoke all make people feel the same. Through the waves of the lake, you can see the reflection on the other side. The various positions of the actors and the spread of layers all give people a sense of immersion. A completely different viewing experience for the audience.
Author: Brother Melo, produced by the bone-deep film review team
