Nandu News Reporter Huang Lu From January 19th to 20th, "Rap Zhang Ailing" from Hong Kong will be performed at the Vientiane World Theater in Shenzhen. The play is a play produced by Zuni Icosahedron in 2020 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Zhang Ailing’s birth. In 2024, Zuni will return to the mainland again with "Rap Zhang Ailing" to meet the audience in Shenzhen, showing the sensory and spiritual shock brought by Zhang Ailing and stage art technology.
This stage work that spans time and space brings a unique auditory journey to the audience. Coupled with multimedia visual effects, the life of Zhang Ailing is slowly unfolded, making people feel as if they have stepped into the memory of this talented woman. She has become herself, experiencing a flashback in time. The
text selects Zhang Ailing's works and articles, coupled with unique stage technology and creativity, and performs them live in the form of spoken and sung article excerpts. The play has been performed in different forms, including online, live performances and big screen screenings. Over the past two years, different versions have been well received by many audiences and have accumulated considerable reputation.
"Rap Zhang Ailing" is structurally adapted from "Contrast Notes"; this is a collection of essays by Zhang Ailing that has been serialized in Taiwan since the autumn of 1993. She selected 54 old photos on the road to the end of her life. In the form of a photo album, it provides a review of his family history and personal growth.
Zhang Ailing's "Contrast" is like a "self-portrait", depicting her three stages from girlhood, adulthood to old age. It seems to be documentary, but in fact it is illusory. Director Hu Enwei used the popular "Little Red Book" to compare Zhang Ailing's expression of narrative through photos, and jokingly said, "She is the first generation of Chinese influencers. She is very down-to-earth and very relevant to life."
Therefore, when "The Rap of Eileen Chang" was put on the stage, the huge projection became the first sight. The Grand Theater version even "extended" the projections on both sides of the stage to the side walls on both sides of the stage, making the audience excited. The feeling of being "surrounded by space"; the layout of pictures, videos, illustrations and other elements completes Zhang Ailing's aesthetic journey. Director Hu Enwei said: "In the space inside the theater, we need to make the sound very good and the image very good, and then the actors must cooperate with the sound and the image."
"Rap Zhang Ailing" is of course inseparable from "speaking" and "singing". Zhang Ailing's more than 70 years of family, love and friendship are woven through more than ten different passages in ten songs.
Jiao Yuan's interpretation of Zhang Ailing leads the audience into the protagonist's life from a more self-narrated perspective; Su Chuxin uses a rap style and a bystander's attitude to illustrate several important nodes in Zhang Ailing's life. Interpretation is like highlighting key points when reading. At the same time, it also provides a link for transitions between different paragraphs.
The introduction of the character Hu Lancheng provides the audience with another perspective on Zhang Ailing's "emotions", especially the passages about "marriage" and "divorce", which outline a more delicate story in its colorful chapters. line.
director Hu Enwei has presented Zhang Ailing and her works in the form of rap more than once, such as "Half Life" (2012), "Red Roses and White Roses" (2014), etc., which are all representatives.
The "technological theater" that Hu Enwei has always advocated is also vividly reflected in "The Rap of Zhang Ailing". Technical means such as image, sound, lighting, etc. have become the protagonists of the theater. In the more compact performance space of the small theater, these elements are integrated across media, amplifying the audience's sensory experience. For example, when Zhang Ailing recited the "Three Hatreds of Life" passage, when the huge words were hit on the curtain, they were like brushstrokes dipped in thick ink, directly falling on the audience's emotions, whether they were sad or sad, Regardless of resentment, it has become the memory of everyone present.
Hong Kong Arts Festival Deputy Program Director Su Guoyun commented on the play, "It is very interesting to use Zhang Ailing's words to create her own 'emotional' chronicle; it is very important for young people to understand Ailing's words."
