China News Service, Shanghai, January 28th. As a representative of "Beijing Story", the new space theater "Cat God in the Forbidden City" produced by Tianqiao Art Center has successfully premiered at the Huangpu Theater-Small Theater in Shanghai. After watching it, the audience gave positive comments such as "moving", "heartwarming" and "rewatching".
New Space Theater "Cat God in the Forbidden City" stills. Photo courtesy of Tianqiao Art Center
New Space Theater's "Cat God in the Forbidden City" tells the story of a cat's journey through time and space. The stage design of the play has distinctive features - the eaves of the Forbidden City, the huge cat hole installation and cute cat puppets, creating a fairy tale-like cat world. At the same time, the show is also highly interactive. There is a sense of ceremony before the show officially starts. The audience will receive cat ear headdresses and voluntarily draw cat whiskers on their faces, as if they have become a member of the cat world. During the performance, the actors frequently interacted with the audience at close range, causing bursts of laughter.
Yang Shucong, Secretary of the Party Branch and Deputy General Manager of Beijing Tianqiao Art Center Management Co., Ltd., introduced that from June to August last year, the New Space Theater "Cat God in the Forbidden City" performed two rounds of more than 100 performances at the Tianqiao Art Center, winning audiences, It has received unanimous praise from the media and performance industry. This time "Cat God in the Forbidden City" comes to Shanghai to perform, hoping to sincerely share Beijing-style culture with Shanghai audiences.
Liu Xiaoyi, the director of the play, learned that many Shanghai audiences are looking forward to this work. In this performance, in addition to maintaining the originality of the story, he also put forward higher requirements for the actors' performances: "The emotions are very sincere, and the puppet operations are particularly delicate." He hopes that this play can continue to be performed in Shanghai and contribute to Shanghai's performance. It brings the atmosphere of the Forbidden City to audiences of all sizes, and we also hope that cat lovers can come and watch this touching story with cats as the theme.
New Space Theater "Cat God in the Forbidden City" stills. Photo courtesy of Tianqiao Art Center
Li Jiawei, one of the leading actors in the play, said: "This play has been 'evolved' after more than a hundred performances in Beijing. The three of us kept trying on the stage and performed many new passages. The most precious part to me is the integration of body movements, singing and guitar, intertwining and weaving together, which is so cute."
"Cat God in the Forbidden City" is a performing arts space cultivation project of the Beijing Performing Arts Service Platform, and the performance is a breakthrough The conventional frame-type stage enriches the performance industry by revitalizing and utilizing the theater space. The Shanghai performance of "Cat God in the Forbidden City" fully integrates Beijing's traditional culture with Shanghai's new space stage, explores breakthroughs in the integration of multiple performing arts formats, and further promotes the development of a "small but sophisticated" and "small but beautiful" new performing arts space.
It is reported that the New Space Theater "Cat God in the Forbidden City" is a project funded by the Beijing Culture and Art Fund in 2022 and is jointly produced by Tianqiao Art Center and China Children's Art Theater. This time there will be 10 consecutive performances in Shanghai until February 4th. (End)
[Editor: Li Yan]
