Mr. Lao She and the Beijing People’s Art Theater

Author: Shu Yi (son of Lao She)

In June 2012, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Beijing People’s Art Theater On the anniversary, I had the honor to participate in a series of commemorative activities, including the launch ceremony of the ten-part documentary "People's Art", a three-day academic seminar and a commemorative meeting held in the Great Hall of the People. "The descendants of one of the six founders accepted the award of the "Foundering Cup"... In all these activities, Mr. Lao She's name, and his masterpieces "Longxugou" and "Teahouse", were frequently mentioned in various speeches was mentioned in, it seemed that a question came up naturally. This is the background of the article "Mr. Lao She and the Beijing People's Art Theater". It can be said that it came into being at the right time and came naturally.

Repertoire

After 1950, Mr. Lao She concentrated on the creation of plays. According to my statistics, including the waste products thrown into the wastebasket, he took turns to write plays in the past sixteen years. He has written forty scripts for Beijing People's Art Theatre, China Youth Art Theatre, China Children's Theater, China Experimental Theater, Opera House, Film Studio, China Peking Opera Theater, Beijing Opera Troupe and other theaters.

Among them, six drama scripts were created for "Beijing People's Art" and were performed. They are "Longxugou" (1951, 1953), "Spring Flowers and Autumn Facts" (1953), "Youth Commando" "(1956), "Teahouse" (1958), "Red Courtyard" (1958), "Shopgirl" (1959).

Another: Beijing People's Art Theater has staged three dramas adapted from Lao She's novels, namely "Camel Xiangzi" (adapted by Mei Qian, 1957), "The Good Business" (adapted by He Jiping, 2004), "My Life" (adapted by Li Liuyi, 2009).

In addition, Mr. Lao She also wrote four plays for "Beijing People's Art" that could not be performed due to various reasons. They are "Representative of a Family", "Three Qin Brothers" and "Lotus and Pearls" , and "Camel Xiangzi Sequel" (only the first act was completed), and also conceived a script based on Premier Zhou's proposal to promote the family planning policy.

Within ten years, Mr. Lao She created ten drama scripts for "Beijing People's Art", becoming the most diligent playwright and laying the foundation for the glorious start of "Beijing People's Art".　　　　　　　

In addition, Li Longyun once adapted Mr. Lao She's autobiographical novel "Under the Red Flag" for "Beijing People's Art", which was later performed at the Beijing Capital Theater by actors from the Shanghai Theater Theatre. The playwright Su Shuyang wrote a play called "Taiping Lake". The protagonist in the play is Mr. Lao She himself, because he is the leading actor.

To sum up, in the first ten years of the sixty years of "Beijing People's Art", a batch of plays by Lao She were staged, which constituted the glorious "Beijing People's Art Decade" in Lao She's creative career. Together with Guo Moruo and Cao Yu, he was revered as one of the three major playwrights and one of the six founders of "Beijing People's Art". The dramas created by Mr. Lao She accounted for one-tenth of the total number of plays performed by "Beijing People's Art" during this period (including all large and small plays). Among them, "Longxugou" not only brought great reputation to Mr. Lao She, but also became popular all over the country. It also became the foundation play of the realist acting style of "Beijing People's Art". Mr. Jiao Juyin led a group of actors in their early twenties to create a glorious acting career for "Beijing People's Art" and won the glorious position of the leading theater in the New China drama world; and Lao She's 1958 drama "Teahouse" became It is a recognized masterpiece of New China drama and has achieved great success on the world drama stage. It is still a repertoire of "Beijing People's Art" and has been performed for more than 600 times. It is also arranged to commemorate "Beijing People's Art" The play will be performed on June 12, the official day of the 60th anniversary.

Reciting

One of the characteristics of Mr. Lao She when writing drama scripts is that he likes to recite the scripts himself.

The place for recitation is either at home or in the theater.

The people who listened were directors, actors, and theater leaders. The theater leaders at that time were the four giants—Cao Yu, Jiao Juyin, Ouyang Shanzun, and Zhao Qiyang. Sometimes they also brought along the other two major directors Mei Qian and Xia Chun.

Mr. Lao She has a very good voice, a beautiful bass.

When actors hear that Mr. Lao She has a new script to recite, they often show up uninvited and rush to listen, thinking it is a great treat and a rare opportunity.

What they paid attention to was how Mr. Lao She enunciated his words, the speed of his speech, the cadence, the soft tones and the rhymes, which were helpful for performing on stage.

Mr. Lao She often recited words while making body movements, including gestures, and even stood up to demonstrate. This is very rare, and it is necessary to keep it in mind as a backup. It is the most straightforward performance inspiration. The actors were very interested in this and rushed to "visit" it.

What is commendable is that Mr. Lao She often explains on the spot the customs of the elderly. For example, one of the thugs in "Teahouse" is called Er Dezi, a bannerman who was born as a "Kuubing". He walks with his legs in a bow shape and walks with his shoulders crossed. This is the characteristic of "Kuubing". Because the soldiers who guarded the royal treasury were often experts in guarding and stealing, and were subject to naked searches when entering and exiting the treasury, he sometimes cleverly brought out broken pieces of silver in his private parts, so he developed the habit of maintaining a special posture when walking. . Mr. Lao She stood up and performed for everyone, explaining how Er Dezi should walk when he came on stage.

This makes Mr. Lao She’s recitation an indispensable and required course for actors.

Revision

Actually, Mr. Lao She recited the script for revision. He's asking for advice.

This is a dream.

In the past, this was not possible. At that time, writing was a profession and a means of supporting a family. It was not easy to craft carefully and had to be done quickly. Modifying slowly is just a luxury.

It’s different now. Now that you have the conditions, you can pursue perfection through constant revision. So, he recited, and then said softly, looking at everyone sincerely with his eyes: "Just mention it! I will change it! Don't be polite to me!"

This kind of change is not ordinary sometimes. Instead of modifying it, we rewrote it from beginning to end.

The script "Spring Flowers and Autumn Facts" was revised ten times and completely rewritten ten times within one year.

The stack of manuscripts of "Spring Flowers and Autumn Fruits" is more than half a meter long, and there are ten completely different manuscripts in it; moreover, the title of the play was changed three times: first it was called "Struggle for Unity", and later it was called "Struggle for Unity". It was changed to "Manager Ding" and finally "Chun Hua Qiu Shi".

Generally speaking, every play has at least three revisions. There was a first draft, and I started to read it aloud, received comments, asked my wife, and later asked my personal secretary, Mr. Nan Renzhi, to copy it again. He revised this neat manuscript a second time, recited it aloud, made comments again, copied it again, and revised it a second time, making it the third draft. This is the minimum. If he is not satisfied, there will be a fourth and fifth draft...

When he encounters a completely unfamiliar character, for example, if he wants to write about a party member and cadre, he will laugh and say: This time, you guys Just tell me how to write it, and I will listen to you.

When encountering themes he is familiar with, such as teahouse opera, he will confidently say: Come and listen to the script in three months!

Humor

Humor is Mr. Lao She’s strength.

In novels, humor has become an important style of Lao She. It started with "Lao Zhang's Philosophy", "Zhao Ziyue" and "Er Ma". Later, a special "Collection of Lao She's Humorous Poems" came out, and then there were outstanding works in "Divorce" and "The Biography of Niu Tianci". play. These have already been concluded in the minds of readers and critics. They all agree that the works of Mr. Lao She have the most humorous temperament in modern Chinese literature, although there are mixed reviews. In that harsh environment of deep national calamity, it was not surprising at all to have completely opposed opinions on humor.

But after all, Mr. Lao She is recognized as a master of humor.

This characteristic was finally brought into full play in Lao She's drama creation after 1950. It can be said that it finally came to fruition.

Indeed, it adds an extremely shining luster to Lao She's dramatic artistic achievements.

The peak of humor is "Teahouse".

Nowadays, among the people, the famous lines in "Tea House", those humorous and philosophical lines, are often regarded as their daily expressions. They can be blurted out anytime and anywhere, and they can be learned and used flexibly. They have become popular among the public. Catchphrase:

"Treating a dead horse while treating it alive? That's a delusion! You can't treat a dead horse anymore, and a living horse will die sooner or later!"

"You are smart, you can still do that Are you embarrassed?"

"Improvement, improvement, the more it changes, the colder it gets!"

"I want to organize a 'trust', which is an American word, maybe. You don’t understand, it’s translated as ‘Baotuanyuan’er’ in Beijing dialect.”

“‘Drag’, it’s indecent! Drag it in, pull it in, tear it in half if you don’t obey. It’s a kidnapping, it’s indecent!”

“If there were fried noodles, I could still eat three big bowls of them, but it’s a pity there isn’t!”

“You should tell everyone that there is. With money, you should eat, drink, whore and gamble, and do whatever you want, but don’t do good things!”

“Brother Da Shuan, why are you going around my neck and scolding me?”

“Me? Love my country, but who loves me!"

Mr. Lao She is good at writing tragedies. Almost all of his masterpieces are tragedies, including "Cat City", "Camel Xiangzi", and "Crescent Moon". ”, “In My Life”, “Four Generations Under One Roof” and “Teahouse”. But how many humorous words appear in these tragedies.

For Mr. Lao She, there is no contradiction at all. Tragedy and humor are on the contrary like two sides of a copper coin, they are innate.

It’s called “a smile with tears.” On the surface, it doesn’t make sense at all and is very awkward. If you think about it actually, it may be very pertinent and appropriate. That smile is bitter, mechanical, physiological, and the first reaction; after thinking about it, maybe ten seconds later, you will cry. This tear, this sadness, is psychological, ideological and emotional.

No wonder, when Mr. Lao She occasionally gets angry, what he says loudly will make the listeners laugh out loud.

For him, humor is nature, innate, not technical; in other words, humor has a methodological and technical side, but it is subordinate and secondary. The instinct for humor comes first. This is often impossible to learn.

Life is complicated. There are many irrational, illogical and unconventional things in life. This is the source of humor in life.

There are two roads in literature, with the same goal, but different paths to the same end. One belongs to Mr. Lu Xun, who always has a straight face and is serious; the other belongs to Mr. Lao She, who is always laughing and joking, relaxed and amused. The former is called satire; the latter is called humor. The former is cold and the latter is hot. They are both powerful, and both have great destructive power against ugly, rotten and declining things.

People gradually understand the value of Mr. Lao She's humor. "Laughing to learn from pain" may be more profound and unforgettable than "crying from pain to learn from pain".

Experimentation

Literature and art, like other industries, are not static. They are all developing. To use a fashionable saying, they must innovate.

To innovate, you need to experiment.

Mr. Lao She is very keen on experimenting. He is very courageous and never gets restless. He is always thinking about coming up with new things and making new moves.

In the creation of scripts, he conducted many experiments: changing Kunqu Opera "Fifteen Songs" into Peking Opera; creating a new local opera in Beijing, named it "Quju", and wrote the first opera The script is called "Willow Well"; the Sichuan opera is changed into a drama, named "Lotus Beads"; the folk tale is changed into an opera, called "The Frog Rider"; Mayakovsky's drama "The Bathhouse" is adapted into Chinese drama, the characters in the play are all Chinese, one of them is named "Wan Jiabao"...

A new play was created for "Beijing People's Art" called "Shopgirl", which is very humorous. There is an old lady named Aunt Yu. She speaks and sings in rhyme, and the rhyme is the same: "Old girl, don't brag! Ever since I got you, the family has been in trouble! Dad wants you to die. The family is short of rice and coal! I can't even get a wife, and no one is willing to be a matchmaker! It took so much effort and so many trips to get a wife, and I have a lot of children. You should be old. Stay at home, hold the children, and do the work without waiting for your sister-in-law. But you, running away with all your heart, are like a herd of wild horses chasing behind you. If you don’t want to, there will be no one to cook, wash, and hold the children. Who can you blame your mother and sister-in-law for being exhausted? Who deserves it!"

When performing "Tea House", because the same actor played the father in the first act and the son in the third act, the makeup time was very long, and the three acts represented three eras. , the scenery change also took a long time. Mr. Jiao was worried that the audience would be a little unable to sit still during the intermission, so he asked Mr. Lao She to think of a way to change it. Mr. Lao She thought for a while and said: Send someone to your home tomorrow to pick up the manuscript. I will compile a few paragraphs of "Counting Treasures" for you.

Shu Laibao is a folk tune performed by beggars in the old society when they were begging for food on the street. The singer now composes the lyrics and sings them according to the scene, to please the owner and reward him with a small amount of money or food. He holds a percussion device made of ox shoulder blades in his hand and sings while percussing.

As expected, Mr. Lao She quickly compiled three verses of Noble's lyrics after returning home, saying: Send an actor to put on makeup and sing on stage, introduce the historical background and plot context of each scene, and it will pass the time. Is it done? Practice has proved that the effect is excellent.

As everyone knows, Shu Lai Bao is a tacky Chinese gadget, while drama is a foreign thing. However, in the hands of Mr. Lao She, the two are perfectly combined and are considered to be "very good".

Experiment, experiment, it’s endless fun.

In the early 1960s, after writing plays, Mr. Lao She wrote three large-scale opera scripts in succession. He wanted to promote the root and prosperity of opera in China, but unfortunately, it failed to work. However, he is ambitious, always climbing, and constantly experimenting.

One curve, two climaxes

Mr. Lao She’s drama creation has two peaks. As we all know, one is "Longxugou" and the other is "Teahouse". The emergence of these two peaks is no accident and is directly related to two factors. The first factor is objective, that is, the political environment and literary and artistic policies at the time, and the second factor is subjective, that is, Mr. Lao She's own creative state.

Looking from objective conditions, both "Longxugou" and "Teahouse" were produced in the period when the political environment was the most relaxed. "Longxugou" was created in the summer of 1950. At that time, the People's Republic of China had just been born less than half a year ago, with everything waiting to be done, everything was just getting started, and the creative environment was very relaxed. The writer is in a good mood. Mr. Lao She had just returned from the United States and saw that the poor had become masters. He was extremely excited. His creative passion suddenly spurted out like a torrent that opened a flood gate. With ease, "Longxugou" came into being, which just met the needs of the times. . After this, a series of political movements and class struggles followed. The campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries, the Three Antis and Five Antis, the criticism of "Wuxun Biography", the criticism of Hu Feng... one after another, the political environment became much more desolate and the strings became very tight. During this period, Lao She was commissioned to create several plays to coordinate with political movements, but they were all thankless. In 1956, Chairman Mao issued the "Double Hundred" policy - let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, and established this policy as the fundamental policy for the development of literary and artistic undertakings. This ushered in another literary spring, although it was short-lived. It happened to be in this short spring that "Teahouse" was born. The "anti-rightist campaign" began in the second half of 1957.

Then came the Great Leap Forward, the Great Steel Smelting and the People's Communes. Mr. Lao She was busy writing plays related to the Great Leap Forward. He worked very hard, but his results were mediocre and he fell into a trough.

It is not difficult to see that any artistically successful creation is directly related to the relaxed political environment, and is completely proportional to it. vice versa.

The so-called direct proportion means that writers can create themes that they are familiar with. Anyone who writes about familiar themes will basically have good results. This is true for "Longxugou" and the same is true for "Teahouse".

On the other hand, "Spring Flowers and Autumn Facts" is not a subject that the writer is familiar with. First of all, it is a play that illustrates policies, a bit like a live newspaper play, which emphasizes propaganda and neglects art; secondly, it follows the political movement and cannot keep a distance, making it impossible to observe the whole process objectively and calmly; thirdly. Only when the movement ends can the party's policies be finalized. If writers and the movement create simultaneously, they will always be in a position where they are not sure of the accuracy of the policy. They can only change it over and over again, trying to follow the development of the movement and adapt to policy changes. . When the ninth draft of "Spring Flowers and Autumn Facts" was written, the movement had come to an end, and Premier Zhou Enlai was finally able to give Mr. Lao She a comprehensive, complete and accurate account of our party's policy towards the national bourgeoisie. In other words, with the development of the movement , Practice brings true knowledge, and the party's national bourgeois policy was finalized only when the movement was coming to an end. In a word, writing about this kind of subject matter that is completely unfamiliar to the author is indeed a hard job, and it is downright thankless. Such lessons are worth learning seriously.

From the perspective of active conditions, there are quite a few reasons for the success of "Longxugou".

There are three reasons:

First, as mentioned above, the author's mood is completely in tune with the great changes of the times. There is a sense of liberation and knowledge, and he has entered a new stage of life;

Secondly, Mr. Lao She watched a large number of American dramas in the United States. Shortly after arriving in New York, he wrote to friends in China, saying that he had seen two dance dramas, three radio dramas, two musicals and eight plays in two months. And he stayed in New York for four full years. During this period, he had contact with Brecht, who was in the United States. After returning to China, Mr. Lao She and Mr. Mei Lanfang became good friends and watched his plays many times. The two simultaneously served as the main leaders of the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and went abroad together and lived in the same room. The days of cooperation with "Beijing People's Art" were the climax of Mr. Jiao Juyin's promotion of Stanislavsky's drama system. Invisibly, the world's three major drama systems were accidentally intertwined in one person. This happened to be a very high starting point for Mr. Lao She to engage in drama script creation. At least he had some more references, maybe somewhere. You can have more creative skills and ingredients, pick them up at your fingertips, and become inspiration and sparks.

Third, the cooperation with "Beijing People's Art" is a good opportunity. Its president, secretary, director, actors and stage workers are all first-class drama artists, organizers and professional workers. This kind of cooperation is also a God-given opportunity, which makes Mr. Lao She feel like a fish in water, and he is very successful.

Premier Zhou Enlai’s encouragement, support and affirmation of Mr. Lao She is a huge spiritual force that cannot be ignored. Premier Zhou said that "Longxugou" is what he needs most, and it plays an important role in consolidating a new regime, surpassing many speeches, editorials and courses. He suggested that Comrade Zhou Yang publish an article in "People's Daily" calling on writers across the country to learn from Mr. Lao She. He recommended Chairman Mao to watch the performance of "Longxugou" at Huairen Hall. This was Chairman Mao's first time to watch a drama after entering Beijing. He suggested that Mr. Lao She be awarded the honorable title of "People's Artist". He assigned writing tasks to Mr. Lao She many times and entrusted him with important tasks. He has provided on-site guidance on the creation, rehearsal and performance of Lao She's plays many times. All these eventually gave Mr. Lao She a strong interest and responsibility in script creation, allowing him to firmly continue on the path of script writing, keep writing, and enjoy it endlessly. He became a national model worker in the literary and art circles. Not only did he produce the most products, but he also had two reached its peak, and "Teahouse" became a representative work of New Chinese drama.

Prime Minister Zhou Enlai once joked that if he ever retired, he would be willing to be the chief director of "Beijing People's Art".

In fact, starting from "Longxugou" of "Laorian Art", through ten rewrites of "Spring Flowers and Autumn Fruits", to the performance of "Teahouse", he has already acted as the general director of "Beijing People's Art" in practice. In Mr. Lao She's creative curve, whether it is peak or trough, in the whole saddle-shaped process, there is the shadow of Zhou Enlai. The most important thing is that his big hands supported the two peaks in Lao She's drama creation career. The birth of "Beijing People's Art" also naturally contributed to the perfect creation of the realistic performing arts style of "Beijing People's Art", making it stand gloriously in the big garden of the world's drama stage.

Message

Mr. Lao She’s creative process in the first ten years of the sixty-year artistic practice of “Beijing People’s Art”, both for himself and for “Beijing People’s Art” , so that it is a crucial historical chapter for the entire Chinese drama stage. It is worthy of a special book and a careful summary. It contains successful experiences, lessons of failure, and even more proud brilliance and eternal glory. An achievement recorded in the annals of art history. The cooperation between Lao She and "Beijing People's Art" is another glorious example after the cooperation between Chekhov and the Bolshoi Theater, and will be passed down and remembered forever.

As early as June 5, 1946, in New York, the United States, Mr. Lao She wrote to Mr. Wu Zuguang in Shanghai, and said a touching words to his friends in the drama industry across the country:

"To be honest, Chinese dramas have made great achievements, both in terms of scripts and acting skills. I dare say that our dramas are by no means weaker than anyone else in the world. Please put the above sentences Tell friends in the drama industry, please keep working hard!"

This is a concluding statement after an on-the-spot investigation of contemporary American drama, and it is also a prophecy.

This prophecy has been realized, both in his own creation and in the performance of "Beijing People's Art".

Very accurate, very genius!