Stills from the drama "The Taste of Warmth". Photo courtesy of the crew. Amidst the soothing music, the morning mist is misty and the smoke is curling up on the banks of the Yellow River, exuding a rustic atmosphere and wisps of nostalgia. Sun Guangming, the first secretary who g

Stills from the drama "The Taste of Warmth". Pictures provided by the crew

Amidst the soothing music, the morning mist is misty and the smoke is curling up on the banks of the Yellow River, exuding a rustic atmosphere and wisps of nostalgia. Sun Guangming, the first secretary who graduated with a doctorate in agriculture, walked into Yuandixia Village with low pile apple seedlings on his back, opening a new chapter in rural revitalization that uses science and technology to help upgrade the planting industry and lead villagers to a better life...

html September 7 to On the 10th, the drama "The Taste of Warmth" premiered at the Central Opera House. At the end of each night's performance, when Sun Guangming, played by Jin Dong, and Hao Fengxian, the village party secretary played by Liu Mintao, took their curtain call, the audience would burst into warm applause and cheers. After the performance, the audience was surprised to receive Shaanxi apples at the entrance of the theater. The producer said: "Please take away an apple and take away the warm taste."

A "fable" about "apples"

"The Taste of Warmth" is narrated against the backdrop of the historic "Yuandixia Village" along the Yellow River. The unique sunshine and geographical advantages at 37 degrees north latitude make Yuandixia Village a golden apple producing area. Forty years ago, in order to get rid of poverty, the villagers resolutely went to the plateau to open up wasteland and planted the first batch of apples on the banks of the Yellow River. Forty years later, due to the failure of the apple harvest, the villagers gradually lost confidence. The arrival of First Secretary Sun Guangming changed everyone's ideas and lives.

In the play, a conversation between Sun Guangming and Pingping, a rural young man who graduated from a postgraduate degree in agriculture, is on point: "Why is the apple-producing area at 37 degrees north latitude, instead of the equator, which has the most sunshine? Because the relationship between the sun and apples is like this, too close. It will burn if it is too far away, and it will be cold if it is too far away. Only the right distance and the right sunshine time can provide a truly warm temperature. The same should be true between people... You should find your own temperature under the plateau."

Therefore, this is not a simple realistic rural theme work, but more like a "fable" about "apples", using the growth cycle of apples as a time scale to measure the changes that Yuandixia Village has experienced in the tempering of time. Self-innovation, replacement of old and new, and continuous upgrading.

A series of lively and simple images

As the chief planner, artistic director and starring role of the play, Jin Dong is undoubtedly the biggest attraction of the play. When he appeared on the stage, there was a round of applause. Known affectionately as the "veteran cadre", Sun Guangming, who plays Sun Guangming in "The Taste of Warmth", is a grassroots cadre full of wisdom and courage. Sun Guangming, who has a scientific research background and urban life experience, still has the scholarly air of an intellectual. When he first arrived in the countryside, he faced a new environment full of challenges. The villagers' rejection and doubts about him made him difficult to move forward and felt confused. But in the face of difficulties, he communicated with Secretary Hao and the villagers firmly, persistently, patiently and sincerely, and finally ushered in the dawn of hope.

Jin Dong's temperament fits such a character image. His natural and simple performance also makes the character very approachable. The play also expresses Sun Guangming's dreams to give this character a poetic feeling.

Hao Fengxian played by Liu Mintao is vivid, complex and multi-faceted. She once had a difficult experience. She married the poorest and stupidest lao Liu in the original village. She was looked down upon by the villagers. The villagers left all the hard work to her, and she became the village chief. She worked hard and gave everything she had to win the trust and respect of the villagers. But in the complex world of people and various relationships, she also has a lot of helplessness and compromise. Liu Mintao used a slightly exaggerated but down-to-earth performance to make this character stand on the stage.

There are a large number of group dramas in the play. Through the different performances of villagers, various problems existing in rural development are faced directly, such as the difficulty of industrial upgrading and the difficulty of promoting new technologies. This theme selection that closely follows the pulse of the times makes the work have strong practical significance and contemporary value.

A collision between the old and the new

The director’s second creation and the careful design of the stage make the entire stage both realistic and freehand. The huge loess slope that can be moved, combined and rotated exudes the smell of earth, and the flippable multimedia The screen is large and stylish.The actors travel through it, and the fate of the characters rises and falls. Everyone and every family has their own story. The image of Aunt Li, a centenarian who has no lines, has a certain symbolic meaning and expresses people's attachment to their hometown.

"Nowadays, many young people are actively returning to their hometowns to build the beautiful countryside into a better place. This has brought a lot of inspiration to our creation." Jin Dong said, "In the final analysis, this drama is about people and the relationship between people and their feet. The relationship between a piece of land. What we want to express is not only a specific story, but also a dialogue about time, about the collision of the new and the old. "

In the view of director Wang Yansong, the taste of warmth is the taste of people. It is accompanied by a long period of nostalgia, inherits the desire of generations of Chinese people in the evolution of ancient agricultural civilization, and is a new life of "new rural aesthetics".

"The Taste of Warmth" is jointly produced by the China Coal Mine Art Troupe, Shaanxi People's Art Theater Co., Ltd., and People's Daily Online Co., Ltd. It is a 2023 funding project of the National Arts Fund and enters the "Walking with the Times and the People" - Excellence in the New Era Exhibitions of stage art works, "Watch Beijing in a Big Show" 2024 performance season, etc. After the first round of performances in Beijing, it will be performed at the 23rd China Shanghai International Arts Festival, the 10th Silk Road International Arts Festival and the 2024 First Jiangsu Grand Theater Theater Festival in October. (Beijing Daily reporter Wang Run)

(Source: Beijing Daily)

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