Original Title: The Great World of Performing Arts · 2022 The 8th Shanghai International Comedy Festival Finale (Quotation)
How stage comedy breaks the circle is worth pondering (theme)
Liberation Daily News (Reporter Zhuge Yi) Yesterday, with the performance of the word-of-mouth drama “Miscellaneous, Zheluo, or Salad” in the Lyceum Theater, the 8th Shanghai International Comedy Festival 2022 in the Great World of Performing Arts ended happily. 426 performances of 34 plays in 59 days attracted more than 90,000 spectators. The closing drama “Miscellaneous, Zheluo, or Salad” ignited the 2023 performance market at the beginning of the year. No matter whether the play premiered in Beijing or later at the Wuzhen Theater Festival, it was hard to get a ticket. In the Lyceum Theater, this popular drama continued its reputation and popularity.
2022 is the fourth year that the Shanghai International Comedy Festival has been held in the Performing Arts World. The repertoire covers road comedy, urban comedy, Shanghai style comedy, talk show, cross talk and other types. In the face of a new generation of audiences who are more and more expressive, where should comedy go in the future? On January 10, the comedy festival summit forum centered on “the evolution, opportunities and prospects of new comedy in the all-media era” to gauge the direction of the industry.
The famous Serbian mime actor Marco Stojanovic described the current changes with “fear of fingertips”, “Our generation is willing to sit and spend hours watching a show, while Generation Z often only has three fingertips to slide. Ten seconds or a minute. We’re witnessing two things: professional degradation and the worst attention war ever.” Still, the practitioners at the meeting agreed that “there is no new comedy, only new media.” The national first-level screenwriter Wang Baoshe said, “The new comedy is only spread in a different way, and the basic laws of comedy are difficult to change.”
Li Liheng, a senior art festival curator, noticed that talk shows have been gaining momentum in recent years, and what theater people have to do is to present a performance that is more abundant than a microphone. “. Xu Xiang, a Shanghai dialect promoter and young actor, described his mentality after getting involved in new media by “preparing for danger”. , how comedy, especially stage comedy breaks the circle is worth pondering.”
How should comedy evolve? Yu Jie, deputy director of the Shanghai Comedy Troupe, believes that deeper immersion and more interactivity are needed so that the audience can deeply participate in comedy. “Play with us, probably a major direction for comedy.”
Famous actor Xu Zheng expressed his expectations for the comedy festival platform, “Shanghai, as an international metropolis, should provide more places, spaces and possibilities. Offline theaters and comedy spaces in the world of performing arts fully provide the stage, and the new comedy will cover more The daily life of many young people.” National first-level director Li Bonan and Hong Kong Repertory Theater Artistic Director Pan Huisen also hope that the comedy festival will provide an experimental platform for creators to find new audiences and find a tacit understanding with the audience. The time not only satisfies the audience, but also does not lose oneself.
“The purpose of the Shanghai International Comedy Festival is to build a platform for communication and cooperation, so that more high-quality comedy works with new horizons can meet the audience, so that more views on the development of comedy can be exchanged and mutually learned, and promote the entire industry. Continue to develop.” Yu Rongjun, vice president of Shanghai Media Group, said, “The Comedy Festival has been held for eight years. In the future, we can rely on the performing arts world theater group and performing arts resources to incubate new comedy works, lead the comedy trend, and innovate the comedy ecology. More young people discover and express themselves in it.”
The opening drama of the 8th Comedy Festival “Coconut Brothers” put the “road movie” on the stage, presenting the story of the three father and son who finally opened their hearts to accept each other after experiencing a surprise and frightening trip, and was evaluated by the audience as “” Hilarious and warm.” The urban comedy “Baoxingli” brings together the old, middle-aged and young generations of Shanghai comedians. It combines talk shows, dramas and other forms of comedy to tell the story of Shanghai’s old renovation and relocation with tears in its laughter. The musical “The Murder of Two People” combines American humor with a down-to-earth Chinese adaptation, presenting a hilarious and bizarre crime-solving rhapsody. The Jiu Le Tang cross talk show, the parent-child drama “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Dunhuang Wonderful Night”, etc., served a happy feast for Shanghai at the end of the year.