The premiere of Meng Jinghui's annual drama "The Red and the Black" in Shanghai recently kicked off at the Oriental Art Center. Yesterday afternoon, in order to have more exchanges with the Shanghai audience, director Meng Jinghui held an audience meeting with the lead actors Mei Ting, Zhang Bencheng, Professor Liang Yong'an of the Department of Chinese of Fudan University and Professor Lu Xiaoping of the School of Liberal Arts of Nanjing University.
Since its publication in 1830, Stendhal's "The Red and the Black" has won the hearts of generations of readers, and the writer's psychological depth has far exceeded the level that contemporaries can reach, creating a precedent for "stream-of-consciousness novels" and "psychological novels" in later generations. The tortuous journey of personal destiny in the flood tide of the times, the repeated contradictions and entanglements of ideals and reality, the fleeting happiness of a small number of people... Through Meng Jinghui's "crazy" stage expression, it shows a new meaning.
"Today's young people don't have time to read, so I read it for them and then show it on stage to show everyone how beautiful it is." Meng Jinghui said that faithful to the original work is not faithful to its plot, but to be loyal to its most important energy, value, and mental state, to find the part that interests modern people, "He is not interested, you are also fake in your performance." ”
"There was a particularly big shift between the 19th century and now. Imagine a person, there are not many people who really find their own starting point in life, and it takes a lot of opportunities. In real life, the details, daily life, life trajectory of a person he shows... In fact, they are all an externalization of the possibilities of thousands of desires, but the degree of completion is often very low. Liang Yongan, a professor at the Department of Chinese of Fudan University, said, "There will always be a moment in a person's life, suddenly there is a high energy, I want to do anything, I will do." People nowadays are very unactive. Jullien was externalizing his life in that era, so find that 'opportunity' and love if you want to love. ”
The theatrical composition of "The Red and the Black" is still an old friend of the Germans Sebastian and Meng Jinghui. As an "eye" of the work, he has been working with the German co-crew, often reminding him in the middle of the night to "return to the original work". "This 491-page novel carries a strong energy, so we go back to the novel, and the horizontal X axis and the vertical y axis of the novel add up to something particularly flat, but we need to mix it up with the z-axis." Meng Jinghui let out a harsh word, "After five years, come and see the 11-hour version of "Red and Black"! ”
Lu Xiaoping, a professor at Nanjing University's Faculty of Letters, said, "Uneasy with the details of reality, Meng Jinghui must find a strong form of external expressionism." In the play, the farewell scene between Jullien and Madame de Rainer, the quick flashback of their previous love clips, uses the lines of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in "The Red and the Black", "tightly sewn, very wonderful".
Meng Jinghui said with a smile that the bursts and strong expressions of these inspirations mainly came from the good actors on the stage.
Presented on the theatrical stage, "The Red and the Black" focuses more on the emotional entanglement between the three people, and the contradictions of Jullien, the pain of Madame de Rainer, and the jealousy of Mathilde are all played in the light and shadow. Zhang Yicheng will be entangled in the heart, the appearance of the calm "ice" interpretation is in place, and the performances of Mei Ting and Luo Huan have their own "fire".
"These two female characters, one introverted, gentle, broad, and sacrificial; the other is intelligent, tall, closely connected with society, flying up and down to the left and right, the tension between these two women is getting bigger and bigger, and I have always had the feeling of dialogue with the writer in my creation." Meng Jinghui said.
"If a director says to an actor that this role is 'suitable' for you, that's a particularly happy thing," said Mei Ting, the layering of Mrs. Dreena's role is vividly interpreted, the rich lady, the mayor's wife, the lover, the hero... The passion of love, the burning desire, the deep jealousy, are skillfully fused in one breath and one inhalation.
Although she is a special actor, Mei Ting has worked with Director Meng since 1999 and is one of the oldest Meng actors. She said bluntly that cooperating with Meng Jinghui is not only to challenge herself, but also to find a kind of "danger" in the unique Meng's avant-garde aesthetic, "Playing Mrs. De Rena, you have to accept the passion of her love, the burning of desire, the loss of not getting, deep jealousy, Meng Jinghui's stage needs you to hold and release, you need to have a lot of energy to release, you must have this energy." ”
"Zhang Yicheng is an actor who has worked with Director Meng for 10 years, and I am especially grateful to him, he hugged me 100% and gave me a full sense of security." Mei Ting said.
With a large inner monologue, multiple Chinese switching, and a large number of action scheduling, Zhang Hancheng leads the audience into Yu Lian's inner world: in the face of painful and persistent seeking, the soul's up and down search, should we choose self-salvation or self-destruction? A real "Jullien", his impulses, thoughts, confusion, sinking and hope, are all struggles between capitalized history and one's growth.
In the original work, Jullien is a short, morbid, neutral, and weak person, and Zhang said that if you watch the play with a strong attachment to the text you have read, you may lose a lot of other things. "I also have a little person in my heart, and if you compare it, and not just look at it with the results, you will find that there is a world like this, which is a very wonderful process." 」
Meng Jinghui has been observing them during rehearsals, "Zhang Yicheng has gradually changed from himself to Yu Lian's contradictions, Mei Ting is very calm on the surface, but in fact it is also very contradictory, the contradictions between the two of them are real, and they have formed their own scenery in a state of growth." It's just that I'm a little sharper and show their contradictions more broadly. The director is not a mirror of the actor, the director is a good, sensitive choice. Promotes, cooks them, and chemically acts. ”
When Zhang Yicheng, Luo Huan, Li Zhihao, Yang Zuofu, Lü Jing, Guo Bingkun, Zhang Gongchang, Chen Yuxin, Liu Shuang, Zhang Yaqian and other members of the "Empty Flower Group" stood on the stage, there was a light that could not be hidden. The actors of the "Empty Flower Group" of Meng Jinghui Drama Studio have so far created more than ten classic works loved by the audience, such as "Rhinoceros in Love", "Opinions on the Life of Two Dogs", "Letter from a Strange Woman", and "The Red and the Black" is undoubtedly their most "inner volume" stage performance.
Stills were provided by Meng Jinghui Drama Studio
Author: Tong Weijing
Editor: Xu Luming