On July 5, Zhang Heping, the former director of the Beijing People’s Art Theater, displayed a letter written by Lan Lanye to him at the memorial service.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Zhonghao
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 5th, title: He used his life to interpret “the drama is bigger than the sky” – in memory of Lantianye
Xinhua News Agency reporters Bai Ying and Yang Shujun
The winner of the “July 1st Medal”, Beijing People’s Art Theater performing and directing artist Lan Lanye passed away in Beijing on June 8, leaving his beloved drama stage forever at the age of 95.
At the “Comrade Lantian Ye Memorial Meeting” held by Beijing Renyi on July 5, Lan Lanye’s former colleagues, relatives and friends remembered his artistic achievements in his life. The art of this drama master in the last eleven years of his life The brilliance is extremely dazzling.
“His whole life is a work of art, especially his intensive creation in his later years, which has set a very wonderful example in front of us.” said Pu Cunxin, an actor from Beijing.
In his old age, he returned to the stage to play the villain
On the evening of July 16, 1992, the first version of the drama “Tea House” was sealed and performed at the Capital Theater. In Lantian’s own words, he “has really had nothing to do with the drama” since then. On the evening of June 23, 2011, the drama “Home” premiered, but the 84-year-old Lan Lanye once again appeared on the stage of the Capital Theater.
Zhang Heping, who was then the dean of Beijing Renyi, recalled that Lan Lanye’s appearance after nearly 19 years originated from a “Hongmen Banquet”. In the spring of that year, he and several academy leaders invited Lantianye and Zhu Xu to a banquet in the cafeteria of the theater, saying that the theater was preparing to revive Cao Yu’s play “Home”. Lan Lanye thought at first that he was just asking old comrades to give their opinions, but Zhang Heping changed the conversation and hoped that Lan Lanye and Zhu Xu would each play a role.
Lan Lanye, who has been away from the stage for nearly 19 years, hesitated. He later wrote in an article: “Have you been acting well in your old age? Your memory has already declined, can you remember the words?”
“But in the end, Mr. Amano resolutely participated in the performance.” Zhang Heping said, “This arrangement is to help and guide, and I hope that the old artists will help to pass on the classic repertoire and pass on the style and spirit of the theater.”
According to the conventional thinking, Lan Lanye should play Mr. Gao and Zhu Xu as Feng Leshan in “Home”, but Lan Lanye, who has never played a negative role, wants to break through himself this time and play the selfish and ruthless Feng Leshan. Starting from the character logic, he did not simply play “bad”, but instead emphasized the “elegant and refined” side of the characters when he appeared.
Han Qing, a young actor who had been on the same stage, recalled that during the rehearsal, Lan Lanye designed a crutch for the character, and during the performance, he used the crutch to crush Wan’er’s hand in the play, “This action makes Feng Leshan’s hypocrisy gone. It was vividly displayed.”
Carefully ponder the role, deeply understand the role
At the same time as “Home” is being rehearsed, Beijing Renyi is also rehearsing another reserved repertoire: Guo Moruo’s historical drama “Cai Wenji”, Pu Cunxin plays Cao Cao, and the appearance is to read Cai Wenji’s new work “Eighteen Shots of Hu Jia” under the lamp .
During the stage composition before the premiere, he was blocked by Lan Lanye who happened to pass by: “Did Cao Cao just get “Hu Jia Eighteen Shots” to watch, or did he read it for several days?” He replied, “It should be just picked up. It’s here.” Lan Lanye asked back, “Then you speak in a prudent manner, with a tone of voice?” This made Pu Cunxin suddenly realize that, according to the prescribed situation, reading poetry should be unfamiliar, pondered, and paused.
“Teacher Amano said that Beijing Renyi’s performances should not be fake performances and emotional performances.” Pu Cunxin said, “In the theater, we are deeply influenced and influenced by old artists anytime, anywhere.”
The second year after the performance of “Home”, Lan Lanye portrayed Huang Fangwu, an old architect full of family and country feelings, in the 60th anniversary drama “Jiazi Garden”, and served as the artistic director of the play.
The 72-year-old Lv Zhong and Lan Lan Ye had a lot of opposite scenes on stage, she was very worried that Lan Lan Ye would forget his words on stage, “But the result is that Teacher Amano not only carefully pondered the role during the rehearsal, but also deeply experienced the role. And I didn’t forget a poem or miss a word during the performance.” Recalling the scene of that year, Lu Zhong wept silently.
A vivid interpretation of the spirit of “play is bigger than the sky”
At the same time as the performance of “Jia Ziyuan”, Lantian Ye began to prepare new works. Once at the Penghao Theater, he happened to meet Wan Fang, the daughter of Cao Yu, the first director of Beijing Renyi, and a playwright, and asked her to write a play about “two old men” for him. The content is not limited. Wan Fang instinctively said that the amount of words in the two people’s scenes was too large, but Lan Lanye laughed and said nothing.
“This gave me a strong desire to create. Mr. Amano reminded me of my dad, so I wrote “Confession” from the perspective of looking back and combined my personal feelings, which was later changed to “Winter Journey”.” Wan Fang recalled that she wrote it well, and Lan Lanye was very satisfied after reading the script.
Zhang Heping recalled that after research at the theater, considering various reasons such as Lantianye’s body and age, he was not recommended to perform this play. At the same time, he listed the playlist of more than 10 plays that Lantianye directed in the theater in his early years, and asked him to choose one. As compensation for being a director, he chose “Wu Wang Jin Ge Yue Wang Jian”.
“He likes “Confession” very much, and hopes to perform it outside, but he feels that it is not good for people and art, so he is very entangled and contradictory, so he wrote me three letters to this end.” Zhang Heping said, “One An old and respected artist, who is so serious about art and respects the theater so much, this is a spirit that we should carry forward and inherit.”
Pu Cunxin said that the essence of Beijing Renyi’s spirit of “play is bigger than the sky” is that it should be regarded as the biggest thing when it comes to art, and the artistic life of Lantianye exemplifies this spirit well.
This is the scene of the memorial meeting for Comrade Lantian Ye, taken on July 5.
On the same day, the Beijing People’s Art Theater held a memorial service for Comrade Lan Ye. The cast and crew of the theater jointly remembered Lan Lanye, the recipient of the “July 1st Medal”, the performer and director of the Beijing People’s Art Theater.
[Editor in charge: Xu Ziming]