As a typical representative of ancient Chinese intellectuals, Su Dongpo has always attracted the attention of playwrights throughout the ages. From the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties, from miscellaneous operas to legends, opera writers have never stopped shaping the image of Su Dongpo, and these "Dongpo operas" based on Su Dongpo's life experience are not only important texts for people to understand the creation of ancient opera, but also a landscape of Chinese culture. In recent years, a number of dramas with Su Dongpo as the protagonist have emerged on the drama stage, such as the drama "Su Dongpo" and "Spring Dawn at Su Causeway", Sichuan Opera "Dream Back to Dongpo", Tin Opera "Su Dongpo", Musical "Su Dongpo", Modern Dance Poetry Drama "Poetry Memories of Dongpo", National Dance Drama "Dongpo Hainan", etc., the House Troupe and many dramas have chosen to retell the story of Su Dongpo in a short period of time, and the playwright has reshaped Su Dongpo from a contemporary perspective, setting off a wave of "New Dongpo Opera". The "newness" of "New Dongpo Opera" is a new method, a new form, and a new concept, which forms a distant echo with the ancient "Dongpo Opera", highlights the creativity of Chinese contemporary drama, and innovatively inherits and develops the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
Why do ancient and modern playwrights love Su Dongpo Among the many intellectuals in ancient times, why do ancient and modern playwrights love Su Dongpo? There are three reasons: one is that Su Dongpo has made outstanding achievements in literature and art, especially his poetry is extremely high, for more than a thousand years, his poetry is an important symbol of Chinese culture, carrying the aesthetic taste of Chinese, nourishing the spirit and heart of generation after generation, making his poetry into the play, which can enhance the literary nature of the drama; The second is that Su Dongpo's life was full of ups and downs, and his ups and downs in his life process itself are full of drama, which provides excellent material for the creation of playwrights. The third is that although Su Dongpo has experienced hardships and repeated persecution, he has always maintained an optimistic and expansive attitude towards life, not giving up on himself because of the ups and downs of the Huan Sea, and not complaining about the bumps in fate, this pattern and realm are enough to resonate with the audience, inspire people to face the tribulations of life more calmly, and then seek the true meaning of life. Lin Yutang called Su Dongpo "an incorrigible optimist", and this distinct personality contains the ideal personality of the Chinese, who is not only the object of admiration of readers throughout the ages, but also a national cultural icon in the Internet age.
However, the Su Dongpo we talk about today is certainly not the real Su Dongpo in history, he is a cultural image jointly constructed by the literati and the common people of all generations. Literary works such as notes, miscellaneous books, and words made by the ancients have described and rewritten Su Dongpo's people and events, preparing a rich story foundation for the creation of opera. According to statistics, there are more than 30 kinds of dramas involving the theme of Su Dongpo in the opera works of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and 19 kinds of dramas exist, involving Yuan miscellaneous operas, Ming and Qing miscellaneous operas, Ming and Qing legends and other drama forms. If you subdivide the types of stories in Su Dongpo's dramas, there are generally several categories, such as derogatory stories, dating stories, religious stories, poetry stories, etc., some of which are true in history, but more are legendary romances. Ancient playwrights wrote about Su Dongpo, and some of them expressed their resentment by writing about his encounters, such as Fei Tangchen's miscellaneous drama "Su Zizhan Wind and Snow Depreciation of Huangzhou" in the Yuan Dynasty; Some of them use the recreation of his life to promote feudal ethics and morality, such as the legend of Chen Ruyuan in the Ming Dynasty, "The Legend of the Golden Lotus". These works generally have ideological limitations, and even have strong religious overtones, even if they have the clever use of structure and the ingenuity of the plot, it is difficult to call them "high-quality". The story of Su Dongpo has been constantly narrated and rewritten, and his image has been constantly reshaped and constructed, with the spread and spread of "Dongpo opera" among the people, Su Dongpo's image has become more and more full, from a serious image in the history books to a more people-friendly and popular artistic image. Therefore, what we are familiar with is Su Dongpo in the art world, and it is the drama that reconstructs our memory and cognition of historical figures and events.
Contemporary innovation brings Su Dongpo's image closer to the public Su Dongpo's attitude towards life has eternal appeal and can still be warm and soothing today. In order to tell the story of Su Dongpo well and connect the contemporary audience with Su Dongpo's spiritual world, dramatists continue to innovate narrative methods and performance forms, and through the perspective of modern interpretation, the audience can see Su Dongpo with multiple faces.
The drama "Su Dongpo" created by the Sichuan People's Art Theater takes "how Su Dongpo was made" as the core of the play, and intercepts the important events between the ages of 44 and 64 years old Su Dongpo. From the trial in Bianjing to the cultivation of Dongpo, from the construction of bridges in Huizhou to the teaching in Danzhou, the play does not use time as a clue, but organizes the drama structure with the internal logical relationship between the scenes, and presents Su Dongpo's career, poetry and emotional twists and turns in three dimensions, so as to reveal that Su Dongpo's personality is not born like this, but cultivated in an unfortunate fate. The National Theatre of China and Hangzhou Performing Arts Group co-produced the drama "Spring Dawn at Su Causeway" from a more modern perspective, director Tian Qinxin excavated Su Dongpo's other identity behind the poetry idol - "Northern Song Dynasty civil servant", quickly narrowed the distance between the audience and the great writer of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo suffered repeated setbacks during his tenure in Hangzhou, but was not moved by power, always maintained a sober attitude and honest style, and his style was loved by contemporary people. The play also jumps out of the constraints of linear structure, allowing actors to jump in and out with the changes of the plot, sometimes participating in the plot performance, sometimes narrating to the audience, and the flexible performance method makes the rhythm of the drama more free and smooth. The stage design of the play is also unique, the scenery moves with the people, the scenery changes, and the performance of the actors cooperates and complements each other, and the ingenious application of landscape painting images adds a lot of color to the plot, which will show the traditional Chinese culture represented by Song Yun to the fullest. In addition, the most commendable thing about the play is that it breaks through the limitations of historical reality and unfolds free artistic imagination and creation. In particular, Su Dongpo's boat scene in Huangzhou was degraded to Huangzhou, drawing on the freehand performance of traditional opera, Su Dongpo and the two boatmen took the same boat, and the boatmen used physical performances to express the boat, and the boat drifting in the wind and rain alluded to Su Dongpo's mental turmoil. At this time, Song Shenzong, Wang Anshi, Ouyang Xiu, Sima Guang, and Su Dongpo's deceased wife Wang Fu appeared, and reality and fiction, past and present were intertwined, forming a poetic spiritual space.
The above two dramas have a distinct comedic color, whether it is the humorous language of the characters or the creation of situations that make people laugh, they all reflect Su Dongpo's open-minded spirit of transcendence. In contrast, the narrative of the tin opera "Su Dongpo" is also unique, which shows Su Dongpo's five-year experience in Huangzhou, which is the period when Su Dongpo's career fell into a trough, and it is also the peak period of his poetry creation. Under the pen of screenwriter Zhang Hong, Su Dongpo achieved a spiritual butterfly change in Huangzhou. In the play, Su Dongpo received a call from the emperor to return to the temple, and he sailed in Chibi in hesitation and had a wonderful battle between heaven and man. He finally gave up the comfortable life in Huangzhou, and re-embarked on a dangerous road full of thorns, as a courtier, he could not advance and retreat freely, but after experiencing vicissitudes of life, he cultivated a pampered personality. The play uses Su Dongpo's poems in many plots, and uses poems into the play, and at the same time arranges a storyteller to intersperse the narration, which is both elegant and popular. The modern dance poetry drama "Poetry Memories of Dongpo" recalls Su Dongpo from the perspective of modern people, simplifying the narrative, not seeking to create a complete image of Su Dongpo, and even unintentionally outlining a certain character trait of Su Dongpo, excavating his spiritual world through 15 poems, and questioning history in the journey of poetry. The play's dance vocabulary is very rich, and at the same time, it blends dance with artistic media such as opera, guqin, and painting, but the play's treatment of narrative and the mixing of multiple artistic languages have caused a polarization of word-of-mouth. It can be seen that how to tell the story of Dongpo well in the international art language is still a difficult problem.
The creativity and innovation of contemporary dramatists have rejuvenated Su Dongpo's image on the contemporary stage, presenting a rich and diverse appearance. There is only "one" Su Dongpo in history, but based on his own understanding of history, culture, and drama, the dramatist has created his own "one" Su Dongpo, which is another sense of "collective creation", giving Su Dongpo's image a new temperament and connotation.
Create the image of Su Dongpo that belongs to our era In terms of the current buzzword, Su Dongpo is a popular IP with its own traffic. In the online cultural community where young people are very active, videos with Su Dongpo as the theme emerge in an endless stream, but this fragmented form of expression is not the specialty and pursuit of dramatic art. For contemporary dramatists, choosing Su Dongpo is not the same as finding the traffic password, how to tell the story of Dongpo in a dramatic way, reshape the image of Su Dongpo with modern spirit, and show the artistic attitude and cultural position of contemporary people is not only a matter of drama innovation, but also related to whether the vitality of the excellent traditional Chinese culture represented by Su Dongpo can be activated in the context of the new era.
Good theatrical productions always win with ideas. The fundamental reason why many "Dongpo operas" in classical opera are rarely performed today is that the values conveyed by these works can no longer be accepted and recognized by contemporary audiences. Therefore, when contemporary dramatists create dramas with Dongpo themes, they should first think about "why to write", and then "what to write" and "how to write". Drama has the attribute of inheriting and disseminating culture, and contemporary dramatists invariably choose Su Dongpo, reflecting their cultural consciousness and self-confidence. In this context, if we can't truly understand the cultural value of Su Dongpo, can't grasp the cultural genes contained in this image, and only use it as a "selling point" in the theatrical performance market or a "signboard" to promote local culture, then it is impossible to create a high-quality repertoire driven by this utilitarian psychology.
It is true that in the face of the same subject matter and the same character, it will be difficult for any playwright to innovate. In recent years, there is no shortage of excellent works of "New Dongpo Opera" that have emerged on the drama stage, but there is also a tendency to converge, and the storylines are highly similar, most of which start from Su Dongpo's debasement and end with his nirvana rebirth, interspersed with his things as a person, an official, and a learner. As mentioned above, the reason why the drama "Spring Dawn at Su Causeway" stands out among many works is that it breaks through this model, gives full play to the imagination of the dramatist, gives Su Dongpo's life story a new angle and clues, makes the drama scene more flexible, and also makes the audience see a new look of familiar characters.
In addition to the plays, the innovation of the performance form is also particularly important, and in the many "New Dongpo Operas", there are not only the participation of quyi, but also the intervention of images, and the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity. Dramatic art has never been a self-enclosed system, and it should absorb more artistic techniques to create a form of expression that conforms to the aesthetic taste of contemporary audiences, and Su Dongpo and his poems have left a deep impression of freedom and ease, and when he and his stories are staged on the theater stage, the same should be true.
No matter how the times develop, Su Dongpo's story will always be told, and more and newer images of Su Dongpo will appear on the theater stage. How to shape Su Dongpo, which truly belongs to our era, so that drama can infiltrate the hearts of more people, and better show the image of Chinese culture to the world, is the thinking left to us by the boom of "New Dongpo Opera". (The author is an associate professor and deputy director of the Department of Dramatic Literature, Shanghai Theatre Academy)
This article was originally published in Guangming Daily on June 26, 2024, page 16