Actor Pan Hong re-appears on stage after 17 years, the second season of the Shanghai-language stage play “Flowers” debuts in Shanghai
The second season of “Flowers” continues the unexplained personnel, love, and city affairs of the first season, describing how the three brothers went from “breaking friendship to reunion” and strung together the cumbersome stories of the new season.Drawing: Li Jie
“Red dust, rolling, infatuation, and deep affection, sometimes at the end of the gathering; stay half awake and half drunk, at least you will follow in the dream…” Ye Qianwen’s classic song “Walk Back and Fare” echoes in the whole Shanghai-language stage play ” At the end of the second season of “Flowers”, the drama is filled with the long-lasting, season-like lingering sound of the past.
As the spiritual history of Shanghai citizens, it is also the history of Shanghai’s growth. The Mao Dun Award-winning work “Flowers” has moved people more than novels. In the 4 years since the first season of the stage play “Flowers” was born, 56 performances have been performed, creating a unique stage aesthetics of “Flowers”. As the middle part of the “Trilogy of Flowers”, the second season is an important piece of puzzle connecting the past and the future. It focuses on presenting the spirit of Shanghai city, dedicated to those who are still struggling to move forward after the storm, and also dedicated to those who seem to be meaningless but will eventually be Every gleaming daily life in the scroll of life. One of the highlights of the play is the joining of performance artist Pan Hong. This is her second appearance on stage in 17 years after the 2004 star version of “Thunderstorm.” Relaxed performance.
Create a “skinny and tenacious” Shanghainese
As the deep soil of literary inspiration, there is a special connection between novelists and cities. The writer Jin Yucheng said that the great changes that Shanghai goes through every day are implemented in the life of ordinary citizens. The subtle changes in life styles and the twinkling of stars have formed a dazzling city.
The 350,000-character “Flowers” uses the life scenes like flowing water seats, the map writing of walking through the streets and the portraits of the characters like flying flowers and butterflies, which is like a brocade to paint the people in the market, and it also “sets the tone” for the stage play—— This will be a “stage series” spanning three seasons, independent and interconnected.
The first season crossed the two timelines in the 1960s and the 1990s, using the three brothers in the original book-A Bao, Hu Sheng and Xiao Mao-from “acquaintance to dissociation” as the clue to the whole play. The second season continues the unexplained personnel, love, and city affairs of the first season, describing how the three brothers went from “breaking friendship to reunion” and strung together a new season of complicated stories. More than a dozen new characters “flying flowers and butterflies” appeared-Tao Tao, Mei Rui, Xiaoqin, Chunxiang, Xuezhi, Fangmei, Teacher Li, Pan Jing, Abao’s father and so on.
Pan Hong’s appearance in “Mr. Li” surprised the audience. On the stage, she has silver hair and is wearing an old gray sweater. Because the role is blind, her eyes are out of focus and somewhat blurred, and she emotionally interprets an old lady who is sealed in her own world. “Mr. Li” once fought hard for love, and also experienced the happiness of life in the process of chasing love. However, the change of fate also made her torment in despair and helplessness for 30 years.
“This is a woman who maintains her vitality in desperate wandering, full of skinny and tenacity.” In the eyes of Zhang Xiang, the artistic director of “Flowers”, Pan Hong grasped the internal tenacity under the fragmented appearance of “Mr. Li”. This rich feature is the epitome of millions of women washed out by the tide of the times.
“She is the desolate background of our “Flowers” and the indispensable bass of this city.” Director Ma Junfeng said, if Shanghai is compared to a painting with rich layers, then “Mr. Li” is the last. That floor. “She is the blurred background after you zoom out the lens. Although it is not clear, it is the guarantee of texture. She highlights the gorgeousness you see and also gives the whole vision a depth.”
Pursuing the “contemporary expression” of Shanghai style culture
The second season of the stage play “Flowers” basically follows the first season’s main youth creative team: post-90s screenwriter Wen Fangyi, post-80s director Ma Junfeng, post-80s electronic musician B6 and multimedia artist Lei Lei, etc. There are a total of 18 Shanghai actors on the stage. They brought the audience into Shanghai in the 1970s and 1990s with their delicate and solid performances.
The work begins with a chat between Tao Tao and Hu Sheng. A feast of various conditions and flavors, a rare sorrow in this life flows naturally through the stage play. In the noisy sound, a panoramic portrait of the spirit of the city slowly unfolded. New characters, new stories, and old brothers and old friendships echoed each other, and life is full of tears. Some critics believe that “this is not only an artistic re-engraving of Shanghai life, but also a continuous extension of Shanghai style culture from geographic coordinates to emotional coordinates.”
Remember the big disc on the main stage of the first season? When the disc turns, there must be profound meaning, and it is related to time. The second season inherits the stage temperament of the first season of “shuttle and flow”, and goes a step further in contemporary expression, moving from “relative realism” to “relative freehand brushwork”. Two 16-meter-long conveyor belts, three ART DECO-style screens, and four 360-degree rotatable construction carts show “complex past, colorful years, gaps in life, and undercurrents of human nature”.
After the novel is “Liyan” in Shanghai, the stage continues to be “Liyin, Liying, Lishen” in Shanghai. (Reporter Tong Weijing)
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