The sound of falling beards was solemn and melodious, and the thousand-year-old painting actually concealed the mystery of the crafty ship. As Zhang Zeduan picked up the plum boat on the stage, the screen gradually rose, and the time went back to the three years of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty. The truth is about to emerge. The Chinese-style suspense stage play "The Code of Along the River During the Qingming Festival" will be staged at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center from the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. Many young audiences wore horse-faced skirts to watch this Chinese-style drama.
The play selects the "Mei Chuan Case" and the "Eight Sons Case" from the original novel to fully expose the superficial and mysterious differences between the scholars of the Northern Song Dynasty. The story begins with an exciting debate about the "old and new party struggles" caused by "Wang Anshi's Reform" among eight close friends of the Northern Song Dynasty. Han costumes made in the Song Dynasty, elegant gatherings of literati, poetry and prose, piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, tea, wine and incense gathered together, and an ancient style and charm appeared on the stage. In order to better present this simple yet elegant dynasty to the audience, the crew worked hard on music, costumes, etiquette, lifestyle and other aspects.
Study diligently and innovate again
The daily elegance that seems to come easily on the stage is actually the result of three months of intensive training for the actors. When director Wang Junye shared the creative process, he mentioned: "When selecting actors, we found several young actors with talents in their own right. They may be able to write calligraphy or have opera and martial arts skills. After joining the group, we also specially invited actors from different fields. The teacher taught the actors the etiquette of the Song Dynasty, practiced the etiquette of that time, improved their calligraphy skills, and learned how to order tea and make incense seals.” Thus, in the process of learning, creative possibilities are constantly emerging. For example, "Spring Qi", accompaniment to the Yaji, is a guqin piece that the actors practiced from scratch and can now be performed live on stage. The music of the whole drama also uses traditional musical instruments such as flute, guzheng, and pipa for creation, using its unique timbre to express specific emotions and atmosphere, creating a musical atmosphere that is both ancient and modern.
Nearing mid-time, the plot turns. On the Bian River in Bianjing, two large ships suddenly collided. Plum blossoms floated down from the sky. One large ship disappeared out of thin air in full view of everyone. More than 20 corpses appeared in the cabin of the other ship. Most of them died of poisoning. It was very bizarre. At this point, the three detective teams all appeared, and the plot of the unsolved case unfolded. The deception of the ship disappearing out of thin air in the case was completely restored on the stage and became another highlight of the play. The basic structure of the stage is derived from the beam and column structure of Chinese architectural woodwork. All stage objects are produced by continuous reorganization of wooden materials. Different shapes and volumes of wood intersect vertically and horizontally and are layered on top of each other to form a huge maze. .
New expression of Song aesthetics
The culture and art of the Song Dynasty showed a purer Chinese style, with exquisite elegance in its indifferent beauty. The costumes in the stage play "The Code of Along the River During the Qingming Festival" follow the Song Dynasty calligraphy and painting as the aesthetic standard, and are as complex as possible The styles of clothing and fabrics from the Song Dynasty are engraved, and the details are supplemented by hand-painted patterns and hand-stitching. For example, the "tube top + bra" worn by female characters is the most typical and fashionable attire for women in the Song Dynasty. In the play, the brocade used in the costume of Gu Zhen, the left army inspector in Kaifeng Prefecture, is different from the coarse linen worn by literati characters. The colors use low-saturation blue, green, gray, brown and other colors to express the simple and elegant robes of the Song Dynasty, and the aesthetic taste of returning to nature.
The play is adapted from the novel of the same name. The author Ye Wenbiao spent ten years writing this masterpiece. This work uses famous paintings as the entry point and brings out stories from famous paintings. He assigns stories to the 824 characters in the scroll one by one, trying to discover the shocking conspiracy hidden behind the scroll. The play starring Drama Center actors He Ping, Guo Lin, He Yi and others will be performed until the 23rd. If "good-looking" is the audience's affirmation of the character interpretation or the plot, then the unraveling of the culture in the play and the tracing of the roots of the craftsmanship show the inner curiosity and desire for traditional culture.
In recent years, ancient style and national style have become hot spots on the stage and even in society. They are the identity and cultural identity of the Chinese people, and they are also the individual expression of young people who keep pace with the times. Previously, a series of works adapted from Chinese classics such as the popular dramas "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "Journey to the West" have also set off a trend of national style stage.
During the Spring Festival, horse-faced skirts become the "dress" for visiting relatives and friends.Later, young people began to wear traditional costumes during traditional festivals, and then brought this trend into the theater viewing experience. (Xinmin Evening News reporter Wu Xiang)
