Performing arts should shine with the light of humanity, not to show technology and money.
Last year, when we talked to Venus, it was just before the premiere of Venus Dance Troupe's modern dance work "Unexpected Farewell". At that time, she told reporters about this year's plan: to cooperate with Master Tuminas to reinterpret Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" in the form of a stage play.
When the time came to the height of summer this year, the news was finally officially announced: from August 16th to 18th, the 120th anniversary collector's edition of the stage play "The Cherry Orchard" directed by Tuminas and starring Jin Xing will premiere at Shanghai Cultural Square.
In it, Jin Xing plays the "former owner" of the cherry orchard and the debt-ridden aristocratic manor owner of the manor Lyubauf. Slightly different from the languid and beautiful image of this character in the past, under the creativity of Tuminas, the Venus version of Lyubowf has a little more exaggerated and neurotic colors.
The last work of Chekhov and Tuminas
More than a century ago, when Chekhov wrote his last work, The Cherry Orchard, Russian society was at a point where it had to be written. The acute social contradictions have not yet been resolved, and the collapse of the old world has become an inescapable fact in the great waves of the times.
Against this backdrop, the debt-ridden aristocratic manor owner Lyubauf's family had to face the cruel fact that the cherry orchard was auctioned off to pay off their debts. The garden has a new owner, and the cherry trees are being cut down one by one......
Chekhov is good at writing "disillusionment" and "bubbles", and he is even better at describing characters with the most concise and sharp strokes, which may have something to do with his experience studying medicine, and his words are as precise as a scalpel.
"The Cherry Orchard" also has a special meaning for Tuminas. In 1990, Tuminas made his first rehearsal of The Cherry Orchard at the Vilnius Little Theatre, where he had just been established for a year, and it was his first Chekhov work.
Although many people think that "The Cherry Orchard" is a melancholy elegy for an aristocratic manor, the author Chekhov makes it clear that it is a "comedy in four acts". And Tuminas understands Chekhov best: "What is comedy? Even if tomorrow is the end of the world, today we will sing and dance. ”
120 years ago, the premiere of The Cherry Orchard was directed by Stanislavsky, and Chekhov's wife played Lyubauf. 120 years later, the work was brought to the stage again, directed by Tuminas, the director and master of the theater who "knew Chekhov best". Chekhov's sharp humor and Tuminas's poetic lyricism will give the audience a unique experience.
The only regret is that Tuminas died in Italy in March this year, and "The Cherry Orchard" became the last stage play of his directorial career.
Venus: Had a masterclass with Tuminas
Venus' fate with Tuminas began in 2019. At that time, she watched "Evgeny · Onegin" directed by Touminas in Shanghai, and was deeply attracted by his authentic stage expression, and the idea of cooperation was born.
At the beginning of the cooperation, Tuminas only asked Venus one sentence: "Do you dare to follow me on an adventure?" Venus replied without hesitation: "Of course, my whole life is on adventure." ”
Between Chekhov's "The Seagull" and "The Cherry Orchard", Venus finally chose "The Cherry Orchard". "Because 'The Cherry Orchard' doesn't just tell a specific story, but focuses on a big change of the times." Whether rich or poor, everyone cannot escape the torrent of the times. Chekhov skillfully weaves the choices of each individual into the story of Lyubov's estate.
Venus said that today's audience can still see a shadow of reality in it. "Of course, I also have a selfish intention, that is, I think I can play Liu Bouf."
Considering that director Tuminas is in limited physical condition and cannot withstand long-distance flights. In January this year, Jin Xing led more than 30 performers of the Mars Drama Club to Italy for more than two months of creation and rehearsal, and discussed with the master at close range.
At first, Jin Xing couldn't understand many of the director's arrangements, but she admitted that she was a good student, "Even if I don't understand some things for the time being, I am obedient, and I understand when I act, and a lot of the director's handling is reasonable." ”
In this version of The Cherry Orchard, Tuminas subversively divides the original four-act play into halves and reinterprets the image of the heroine, Lyubauf.
In the original play, Liu Baofu is a noble daughter who is used to a luxurious life and is slightly obtuse with changes in the environment. Knowing that the cherry orchard had been sold, he still unhurriedly delayed for a month before leaving. But Tuminas knew Venus in acuteness, "If it were you, you would definitely leave that day, not for a minute longer." So, in the Venus version of "The Cherry Orchard", as soon as Liu Baofu heard that the garden was sold, he immediately moved, and the progress of the plot accelerated a lot.
From the actors' point of view, Tuminas is always very good at unearthing their vivid and authentic qualities to serve the characters. He guided Venus to think about the similarities between himself and Liu Baofu, such as generosity, love to party, and like beautiful things, so that the character has a lot more cool, distinctive, and unique Venus flavor in addition to "crazy", which is more three-dimensional and real.
Stage art, the most important thing to show is the light of human nature
Although Tuminas was absent from the premiere of this painstaking work, his daughter Gabriel · Tuminette, who served as the executive director of the play, also came to Shanghai with the main creative team.
In the interview, she recalls to the reporter the dual experience that Tuminas brought to her as a father and as a theater senior: he gave me the maximum freedom and never forced me to choose the theater industry. We've only been working together for almost 5 years and I've learned a lot from him.
In the interview, Gabriel also shared a speech from his father to convey the spirit of drama in his heart:
Drama is like a garden in the land, where we look for old songs, the simplest things. Drama begins with the most primitive thing, and it cannot be created in a sane scientific way. It is just a beautiful garden, and the creation of this garden does not require stars, only good and upright people, whose presence is half the drama, and the other half is our resistance to death and the day-to-day struggle with it.
The real and natural flow of emotions is the theatrical charm that Tuminas values the most. Venus agrees with this. At the end of the interview, her statement was still sharp: Today, we see too many stage performances built with technology and money. But I personally think that the most important thing for stage art is the light of human nature, which is the reason why I am willing and eager to stand on the stage, rather than technology and money.