Beijing Renyi's contemporary Beijing-style family drama "The First Floor of the World" has recently reopened on stage, and new and old "customers" have reunited with the time-honored brand "Fu Jude", tasted "Jingshi Cuisine", and solved "bitter, spicy, sour and sweet". As the strongest group of classic repertoire taken over by young actors in recent years, the combination of Wang Lei, Lei Jia, and Yuan Yu is becoming more and more popular with the audience in addition to the recognized strength.
Since it was staged in 1988, this work, written by He Jiping and directed by Xia Chun, Gu Wei and Yan Rui, tells the rise and fall of a restaurant and the ups and downs of people behind it with the time-honored roast duck restaurant "Fujude" as the background. Although the story takes place in a roast duck restaurant, it encompasses all aspects of the world and penetrates the bitter and spicy life. Many of these classic lines, which are both witty, humorous and philosophical, are talked about by the audience. The author's philosophical, intelligent and humorous descriptions give the work a strong vitality. The classic performance is also integrated into the accumulation of the older generation of actors, and after several generations of inheritance, it is now staged again, while the classicism is retained, it is also more in line with the current values.
This round of performances is the third round of performances after the new and old joint director team composed of Gu Wei and Yan Rui in 2021, as well as Wang Lei, Lei Jia, Yuan Yu and other young people starring. Lu Mengshi, played by Wang Lei, is more pyrotechnic, charlatan and civilian. "Every round of performances must continue to excavate, absorb the details created for us by our predecessors, in order to achieve from learning to change to today's innovation, almost every time we have to watch the video of the past, study the performances of the first two generations of actors, and at the same time combine the needs of today's audience and our own conditions to interpret our role."
Chang Gui, played by Lei Jia, is described as a water-like being, acting as a lubricant between various people. Running up and running, Lei Jia brought to life a respectful, humble and delicate head of the hall. Yu Yan'er played by Yuan Yu was full of wisdom and ideas even in the old era, and such a character creation was also recognized by the screenwriter and the audience after the performance. "I've seen the performances of Teacher Lu Zhong and Sister Yue (Xiuqing) before, everyone's performances are different, some are narrated slowly and then faster, this rehearsal Yan Rui told me that I have to catch the audience as soon as I come up, and the sense of rhythm of the lines is very important."
As a work that reflects the life of more than 100 years ago, director Yan Rui believes that it is necessary to "recover the memory of history and the Tao of the times", in his opinion, "In addition to the vividness of the characters in this version, the dignity is also to be shown, and we are also deeply cultivating the characters under this theme, grasping every detail, and striving to show the state of young people on the basis of classics." This work wants to present the audience with a picture of life at that time, and the actors must not only restore the life at that time, but also express it with the language and rhythm of the time. ”
In this round of re-enactments, director Gu Wei proposed "not to be ashamed, not to lose the style, not to lose the respect for tradition." "Therefore, the new round of shaping still needs to work the characters, and at the same time, there must be a new understanding of the work." For example, at the end of the play, "There is no banquet in the world", which has such a wise and philosophical line, why is it said by the character of Xiu Dingxin, what kind of thinking the author has, and how to highlight the philosophical thoughts and situations in it, in this round of rehearsals, we have reinterpreted and improved. ”
The show will run until July 10.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Guo Jia
Photographer/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Liu Chang