As a companion piece to the drama "Da Hui Ban", the Beijing-style drama "Kun Ling: The First Year" produced by the Beijing Jixian Hongyi Cultural Center recently premiered at the Grand Theater of the National Culture Palace in Beijing. As a project funded by the Beijing Culture and Art Fund in 2023, the drama "Kun Ling: The First Year" tells the story of how He Yukui, a female Peking opera actor from a humble background, overcame obstacles and won applause.
Director Lin Xiyue uses a humorous narrative style to show the core of tenacity in this drama about the legendary experience of a Peking Opera actress during the Republic of China, and uses a unique play-within-a-play structure to lead the audience into that period of history. Talking about the original intention of creating "Kun Ling: The First Year", screenwriter Jiang Siyi said: "I wanted to show how the Peking Opera actresses at that time could become a real person, live with dignity in this world, and put their beloved The art of opera will continue to develop."
As soon as the performance started, the actors on the stage started joking with the lighting and sound effects teachers. There were also three guest actors who were "modern audiences" sitting on the stage with the script in their hands, looking at it from their eyes. This story of the Republic of China has also shortened the distance with the audience. Through their interactions and modern perspectives, it becomes a reflection of the story itself, and also indicates that the fight for equality will become a reality in the future.
The young actor Yang Zimo, who plays the heroine He Yukui in the play, comes from a family in the opera world. Although she has performed in many film and television works before, this is her first time on the drama stage. In her performance, she not only interspersed Peking opera plays such as "The Drunken Concubine" and "Selling Water" The large portions of singing in the song, especially the complicated body movements that showed He Yukui's "singing fame", won applause from the audience.
Guo Haolun, another leading actor in the play, once played Zhou Zhibin in the TV series "Senior Crime Group Six". He returned to the drama stage after many years. He showed his strong line skills. He played the actor's agent Yun Yihe on the stage. They are both good and evil. They can hide the truth in order to make money, but when the actress He Yukui is in trouble, she can stand up and safeguard the dignity of Liyuanxing.
The joining of Wang Jinsong gave the young actors on stage more confidence. The Liyuan leader Yu Shoufeng he played did not have a condescending attitude, but a master who seemed to be deaf and dumb, but actually pretended to be confused. He can joke with the officials, and is also good at resolving conflicts among his colleagues in the theater, but when it comes to big issues, he will never be ambiguous. The dean is alive and well.
In addition, the stage also breaks through the realistic style commonly used in Republic of China themes. A rotating, somewhat dilapidated "attic" carries the entire story space. When the puppet falls and the pigeon dies in the heart, each of the extremely tense images also shocks the audience's hearts. The sound effects soundtrack is also eclectic, and there are even a few rock-flavored pieces of music.
Some viewers said that this was an immersive performance in which the audience participated in the performance, nesting wonderful stories of female Peking Opera actors performing on stage during the Republic of China. The most popular drama currently is immersion drama, in which the audience participates and interacts. However, this drama performs immersion to you, rather than allowing the audience to experience and interact. On the surface it looks like a traditional play, but in fact it is anti-traditional.
It is reported that after the performance in Beijing Station, the play will also start the performance at the Tianjin Station of Xiqu Grand Pier, with five performances at Tianjin Haihe Theater from July 18th to 22nd.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Guo Jia
editor/Cui Wei
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