Meng Jinghui's version of "TeaHouse" recently performed in Beijing, "exit", "refund" and "controversy", which have become the focus of recent discussions among audiences and the industry.
Today, we publish an article on the feelings and views of the audience on the 12th (that is, the day of the tea house ticket refund accident); share it with you for your reference.
This article is written by Sycamore Rain
Nearly half of the audience has left the scene after the performance
Less than 1 hour after the start of the performance has made some of the audience out of anger, every minute there are audiences have left the scene, nearly 3 and a half hours of the play without an intermission is estimated to be to prevent the audience from leaving, an hour or so later, an audience member on the first floor suddenly stood up and shouted: "Are you "Teahouse"? Are you worthy of Lao She? Run riot! So most of the audience applauded and supported, at this time the actors on the stage stopped performing, I watched the play for almost 20 years, the first time I saw the actors on the stage being scolded silly by the audience for two or three minutes, the scene was out of control for a while, until this gentleman was invited out, it was also very spectacular! It's really "live a long time to see"! At the beginning, I thought it was the support of the avant-garde drama, as a result, in the second half of the performance, there were constantly boos from the audience, leaving the scene, the actors acted awkwardly, the audience watched more embarrassingly, I began to feel a little sad about my 180 yuan tickets, more distressed about those uncles and aunts and grandparents who were deceived by the cold wind, this time the theater tickets ranged from 960-180 yuan, not cheap!
To borrow a golden sentence that Teacher Li Chengru said: like sitting on a needle felt, like a mang's thorn in the back, like a fish in the throat...
I am not opposed to the adaptation and reinterpretation of famous works, there are various versions of Hamlet every day in the world, and there are more than ten versions of "Hamlet" that has been performed in Beijing, but whether it is avant-garde or traditional, it is based on Shakespeare's text and lines, and it will not go too far! But this time, how many people were deceived by the gimmick of "Lao She's original", just look at the full Poly Theater last night (November 12). You want to do an experimental pioneer drama, although it is good to do it, but the ticket is under the banner of "Lao She Original" to deceive and entrain smuggled goods, which cannot be understood! Just as the so-called gentleman loves money and has a way, in the name of Lao She, he deceived some unsuspecting audiences to enter the house, or was finally the fate of being refunded! The reason why the audience angrily refunded the ticket is not because you made an inexplicable so-called avant-garde drama, but because you hung up the sheep's head and sold dog meat! You can understand that, right?
Leaving aside the teahouse, let's talk about the play itself: Meng Jinghui may have "subverted" "The Teahouse", but isn't he repeating himself more than ten years ago or even twenty years ago? Is this also "avant-garde and avant-garde"? Hasn't his dramas over the years been all this routine? I have not seen Meng's play for many years, but his style has not changed, the more habitual methods have not made much breakthrough, the ticket face and poster did not mention the "pioneer" half a word, but attracted many non-target audiences to buy tickets to enter the scene completely do not prompt them to watch the risk, really circle money eating photo is not too ugly!
Speaking of avant-garde, in my opinion, avant-garde means avant-garde thinking, innovation in form, and kit-in-genuity of creativity; however, this play has not made any progress except for the more shocking choreography! This has been more than a decade, even the expression, symbolic elements, high-frequency language have remained unchanged, from a certain point of view, this is also a kind of regression, let alone experimentation and pioneers? Even the form of live camera projection is left over from people playing abroad...
As for the discos audience standing up and scolding and influencing other audiences to watch, I would like to praise the courage and boldness of this gentleman; if Director Meng is doing a pioneering drama, then the audience's anger is a pioneering and natural act, and it has already formed part of this avant-garde drama. Since the lead actor on stage can insult and taunt the audience offstage, why can't the audience scold the play at the performance site? It's like if I ordered a plate of beef stuffed buns and you gave me a plate of pork stuffed buns, and insisted that this is beef buns, so isn't this just looking for scolding!
As for some people who say that the audience should do their homework in advance before buying tickets and understand the style of Comrade Meng Jinghui in advance, I can't agree with this statement! Some viewers may indeed not be familiar with Meng Jinghui, but the audience is familiar with "Tea House" and is familiar with Lao She! Can't let people enter a Cantonese restaurant and first investigate the chef's resume, there is no such reason!?
As for some of the yellow performance clips in the play, I really don't know how they were allowed to be put on the stage! Of course, the expression of sex can also become art, sex has its own charm and beauty, but score what form of expression, theme and occasion; take Mr. Lao She's "Tea House" to forcibly join the dirty yellow riot performance similar to the B-grade film: the male lead actor naked bird eggs, the actress put on a big paper shell, the two men went crazy there... It's not art but vulgarity! For example, some comedies are wonderful irony and humor, while some comedy performances are composed of yellow jokes and scratching your arm sockets, which is high and which is low.
Meng Jinghui can name this drama after any name, but he can't say that it is Lao She's "Tea House", whether under the guise of realism, modernism or postmodernism. As far as the script as a whole is concerned, the Meng version of "Tea House" has been fragmented and unrecognizable, in addition to the name, lines and plot of "Tea House" after deconstruction, deformation and exaggeration in the play, the rest of the content and "Tea House" basically have no connection, the original characters and stories have become seemingly non-existent, and inserted a large number of non-"Tea House" plots and narratives, so Mr. Lao She's "Tea House" is completely destroyed in its wholeness, so to be precise, this is not Lao She's "Tea House".
Unfortunately, the director is still as proud and arrogant as ever, and does not put the audience in the same position. After watching the play for almost twenty years, I feel that I am still a very inclusive audience. Whether it is a theater or a crew, whether it is a person who makes a play or a person who acts, the first and most important point is: respect the audience!
Last night (November 12th) the audience refund was particularly smooth, the crew was very cooperative, it is estimated that it was expected! The first time I saw the staff in the lobby of the Poly Theater, their expressions were very nervous and serious, and it was estimated that they were afraid that when the audience left, they would trigger the ignition of bad emotions in the audience.
Really, Mr. Lao She's coffin board can't be pressed...
(Image from the Internet, copyright belongs to the original author)