original title:
The time is right for the bright moon and the time for the wind: the taste of Beijing becomes the taste of Hong Kong “The First Floor under Heaven” has its own style
Shang Xiaolei
“The First Floor in the World” is a classic play created by the playwright Ms. He Jiping in the 1980s. It tells the story of the time-honored family-run roast duck restaurant “Fujude” in Beijing at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. At that time, high-level manpower was invited to turn the tide. After several twists and turns, it finally made a comeback and went up to the next level, but in the end it still went dilapidated and the song came to an end. Through the rise and fall of a restaurant, the whole play reflects the ups and downs of the times and the ups and downs of personal destiny. The palace, the market, the three religions and nine streams run through it, and their respective stories revolve around the food culture of “never tire of fine food, never tire of fine food”.
This play was staged for the first time by the Beijing People’s Art Theater in June 1988, and has become one of the representative plays of Beijing People’s Art Theater. During this period, he has toured around the world many times, and has been translated into multiple languages, and has performed more than 600 performances around the world; the script has also been adapted into film and television works, all of which have been successful.
This year, when the Hong Kong Repertory Theater (referred to as “Hong Kong Dialect”) announced the news of the Cantonese version of “The First Floor under Heaven”, it caused quite a stir. As one of the most outstanding drama groups in the Chinese-speaking world, the Hong Kong Repertory Theater rehearses domestic and foreign masterpieces and local new creations all year round. However, this rehearsal of “The First Floor in the World“, as one of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, not only has extraordinary significance, but also has a special fate, because several core creators have different relationships with the Hong Kong Repertory Theater. small origin.
Ms. He Jiping immigrated to Hong Kong in the 1990s. Over the years, she has worked tirelessly in the Hong Kong drama and film industry. “” “Sweet and Sour Hong Kong Land” and other works. Director Situ Huizhuo also served as the resident director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theater. Over the years, he has directed many well-known works such as “Dear Hu Xueyan”, “It’s All the Dragon Robe’s Trouble” and “De Ling and Cixi” (Mainland Edition). In addition, the Hong Kong Repertory Theater also invited Tse Kwan-ho, the former chief actor and treasure of the Hong Kong drama world, to return to play the leading actor Lu Mengshi. Many heavyweight artists under the Hong Kong dialect in the past can gather again, and create together with all the cast and crew with an ultra-luxury elite lineup, which shows the importance and expectation for this rehearsal.
Beijing flavor to Hong Kong flavor
The charm is still not acclimatized
However, while rehearsing “The First Floor Under Heaven” in Cantonese, I am yearning, but also a little nervous. This is all because the local characteristics of the script of “The First Building in the World” are really strong and dazzling, and the previous version of Beijing Renyi is too popular.
The time-honored “Fujude” in the play is located outside Beijing’s Qianmen, and the famous Beijing dish is “roasted duck”, which is Beijing roast duck. In the play, there are relatives of the emperor, famous people in the Liyuan, but also deacons in the palace, bannermen in the inner city, women in the eight major alleys, apprentices in the five sons, all kinds of people are the unique scenery of the capital. The story happened at the time when warlords were fighting among the warlords in the early Republic of China, and regimes frequently changed. Only at the feet of the Son of Heaven in the center of the storm, could one feel the sense of instability brought about by the environment permeating the air. It’s not easy to decide how idle you are.
All in all, if this drama is separated from the setting and temperament closely related to Beijing, it may lose a lot of flavor. Moreover, Beijing Renyi’s first edition of “The First Building in the World” directed by Xia Chun and Gu Wei can be said to be the first of its kind. Several generations of artists have given this play a deep impression through vivid character creation and continuous polishing over the years. brand of Beijing flavor. Like “Tea House”, it has become a family show of Beijing People’s Art, and is regarded by the audience as a representative work of Beijing-style drama. The deeper this impression is, the harder it is for people to imagine what “The First Floor Under Heaven” will look like in a Cantonese environment-are the familiar characters still attractive? Will Hong Kong audiences feel alienated after the translation of Beijing-style lines that often have a folk art style? It is often said that “oranges grown in Huainan are tangerines, and oranges grown in Huaibei are oranges.” All classic transplants have the possibility of being unaccustomed to the environment. What kind of “Fujude” will shine when it comes to the Hong Kong stage 40 years later? What about fresh looks?
reality modification
Slow simmer to quick wok stir-fry
On December 3, 2022, the lobby of the Grand Theater of the Hong Kong Cultural and Arts Center, the steps leading to the second floor, the cantilever of the second floor and the theater foyer are all decorated with a huge poster of “The First Floor in the World“. The background of the poster is dark brown The colors and dark patterns reveal a sense of history, as if they have been waiting here for a long time. After entering the arena, I saw only a white minimalist wooden screen in the middle of the stage, and the same white screen paper, with a weak cold light hitting it. I heard that He Jiping described this version of “The First Building in the World” as a “modern version”, and here you may see a leopard.
Of course, the so-called “modern” absolutely does not mean that all elements can be simplified and accomplished. The text of “The First Building in the World” is already very exciting. Although there are many characters and events, the description of the characters is precise and sharp, and the small characters also have outstanding personalities. Moreover, the plot is compact and orderly, with successive events and conflicts one after another. , Lively and lively, you will sing and I will appear on the stage, and there are many interesting knowledge points about food culture interspersed in the middle. The scene is a dizzying group portrait show, but if you look closely, every character has his own destiny in it, and they all represent a kind of taste. In the ups and downs of the world, they cook together this mixed flavor. A feast of laughter and tears. Presenting such a play in a “modern” style also requires a lot of work on the heat, layers, and trade-offs, so that the audience can enjoy it and have an aftertaste.
Judging from the popularity, the Hong Kong version of “The First Building in the World” is even more “booming”. If the Renyi version of “The First Building in the World” is stewed slowly, then the Hong Kong version is more like a quick wok. The curtain opened, and it was the “Fujude” lobby full of voices and enthusiasm: the stage was bright and open, and an oven with a symbolic significance rather than a practical significance was placed in the middle of the back stage. The voices of the guests came one after another, and the boys lined up A row of fish ran through the field, and then went to their respective posts to be busy, lively and vigorous. For a moment, it seemed to be the opening scene of a Cantonese opera drama or the movie “God of Cookery”, which made people secretly praise the word “strength”.
This is an appearance that sets the tone of the whole play, and the “spirit and energy” of this play has been fully raised since then. In the next three hours, accurate and efficient scheduling and brisk and ingenious scene changes made the connection of each scene smooth and smooth, as if the drums were always on the stage. However, speeding up the rhythm does not mean moving forward at “double speed” without distinction. The emotional transformation and blank scenes required by the plot are well done; it’s just that in the way of presentation, the long and short sighs that used to stand silently become drums, a stop, and a turn around. , freeze cut light. In a second, there was a huge gap suddenly, but he didn’t indulge too much, instead he picked up the rhythm and continued walking. This kind of processing is rare on the stage of drama, but it is not unfamiliar on the stage of traditional Chinese opera, and spoken Cantonese has the rhythm of ancient Chinese, like the chanting in opera. When the two phases of chanting blank and blank space are matched, a sense of rhythm like resonance is produced. After watching the whole play, I just feel hearty.
It is worth mentioning that although the Cantonese version seems to have faster lines than Mandarin, the performance of the same script takes nearly half an hour longer than the Beijing Renyi version. Perhaps it is because the “nine tones and six tones” cannot be sloppy in cadence, and the pronunciation of words is also meticulous, unlike Beijing dialect, which is leisurely and casual, and swallows multiple sounds. Perhaps it is precisely because of this language difference and the characteristics of Cantonese that the creators found inspiration from the characteristics of opera, presenting a more “prosperous” “The First Building in the World“.
Blur and sharpen
The abstraction of the stage sets off the reality of the performance
For a fast-paced drama, if the script has a lot of information, it is easy to lose focus, just like a stir-fry is more likely to be overwhelmed. The Hong Kong version of “The First Building in the World” has achieved a clear level of stage vision and aesthetics, with a degree of fiction and reality. Traditional realistic historical works often present an archaeological-level realistic stage environment in pursuit of historical authenticity, but the actual effect is that “the dance is beautiful and the actors are eaten up”; the West is better at stripping the classics from the historical paradigm at that time, Put it in an allegorical situation that is separated from or blurred the background of the times.
In Hong Kong, the meeting point of Chinese and Western cultures, Situ Huizhuo has found a balance between history and modern reality. Director Situ Huizhuo has toured many works on historical and cultural themes in mainland China. In my impression, his stage always has a modern sense of “jumping out of history to see history”.
The high-ceilinged scenes and side curtains make the space look lofty and deep; the set design is gorgeous but relatively abstract, focusing on creating atmosphere without causing too much interference to the performance. Focus on the reality of the performance rather than the reality of the stage environment, and by effectively dividing the stage performance area, the visual focus of the audience can always fall on the place where the drama takes place. This line of thinking seems to be traceable to the opera stage.
This time, the set of “The First Building in the World” is exquisite and full of details, but it is always placed on the back stage, as if depicting a “ground color” for the scene, as if the scenes of historical pictures are slowly unfolding. Most of the key performances are in the center and front of the stage. The stage beauty does not invade, but only sets off. A single character in front of a huge scene does not appear small and depressing, but has a wider performance space.
An essential factor for the success of this attempt is that the actor’s performance must be capable of serving as a point of light that fills the entire space. From this point of view, all the actors in the Hong Kong version deserve the most sincere admiration. In addition to the real and vivid overall performance style, each character seems to be more “sharpened”, or more eye-catching – no matter the leading role or supporting role, the number of roles in the role can be more or less impressive in the performance time. deep impression. Wang Zixi, who is obedient and always buys shredded radish pancakes whenever he encounters difficulties, is a little more funny in Hong Kong-style comedy; The scene where the masters fought each other drew continuous laughter from the audience; each of the guys had their own personalities, and they all shook their heads in different gestures when they heard Chang Gui’s report of the name of the dish. “There are no small roles, only small actors.” On this point, Hong Kong dialect and Renyi are equally worthy of deep love.
Temperament becomes chivalrous
The blood and tears of part-time workers echo the mentality of the times
In addition to the innovation of drama rhythm and stage level, “The First Building in the World” also found practical significance for the rearrangement of classic texts. Just like many outstanding contemporary Western theater directors have tried, extracting the spirit of the times from the core themes of classic texts, which is common to the present, has a relationship with the audience, and arouses interest and touch across eras, regions, races, and language barriers.
If the “Fujude” at the root of the imperial city is full of caution and panic, then the “Fujude” of the Pearl of the Orient embodies the cunning and chivalry of soldiers coming to cover up water and earth. The Renyi version focuses more on the helplessness and desolation of being unable to display talents under difficult circumstances, while the Hong Kong version highlights Lu Mengshi’s tragic and unfulfilled personal aspirations. Mr. Tan Zongyao of the Renyi version of Lu Mengshi has more or less the inferiority and resentment of some diligent children. The business is more out of the morality of the old shopkeeper and the anger of his father’s unjust death and humiliation; while Xie Junhao’s Lu Mengshi is full of ambitions , high-spirited, and brought into full play the temperament of the working emperor – when he is proud, he makes a bold move, and when he is frustrated, he only reveals all kinds of emotions in his heart, either tenderness or compassion, and the matter is over, and the merits and demerits are in vain.
From a contemporary perspective, Lu Mengshi is actually a professional manager hired by the Tang family business. He has coped with various external emergencies and difficult stages, and made the business flourish. The Lord caused the board of directors to be dissatisfied with him and lose.
The finishing touch of the Hong Kong version of “The First Building in the World” is at the end. The back screen with gold powder dots is full of flowers, but the stage has long been empty, leaving only the couplet—what a dangerous building, who is the owner? It’s a guest; there are only three old houses, and the time is suitable for the bright moon and the wind. At this time, the scene of Lu Mengshi and the old shopkeeper laughing and talking about the situation at the table when they first met reappeared in the depths of the stage. No one understands the blood and tears of migrant workers in the service industry and the fragility of professional managers’ golden jobs better than Hong Kong people who value both business operations and family blood. This may be a story they hear every day. As a result, the audience was able to more keenly grasp every edge in the script, and applauded and sighed with Lu Mengshi’s fate.
This may be a narrative choice most suitable for Hong Kong audiences. It may have benefited from the advanced modernity of business operations in the script, but the keenness of the main creative team during the second creation also allowed this story to remain alive in the hearts of contemporary audiences from history.
Hong Kong Repertory Theater’s “The First Floor Under Heaven” presents a unique sense of modernity in terms of rhythm, scheduling, performance and choreography. This sense of modernity does not conflict with the setting and background of this play, and even complements each other perfectly. After thinking about it, this is the result of the main creative team respecting tradition and drawing inspiration from it. Its successful experience also provides a new way of thinking for the transplantation and rearrangement of classic texts.
The Beijing People’s Arts version of “The First Floor Under Heaven” is an eternal classic, and the Cantonese version of the Hong Kong Repertory Theater is another lively and fragrant version. Classics can have a completely different appearance. Although the text of this version of “The First Floor under Heaven” is deeply rooted in Beijing’s genes, it is completely different under the courage, talent and hard work of the Hong Kong Repertory Theater and other creators. It takes root in the language environment, develops its own style, has the same cultural context as the Chinese nation, and has a more current focus and resonance. Most importantly, it allows people to see the innovative significance and brilliance of the classic rearrangement: “The First Building in the World” should belong to the whole world, and belong to the broader Chinese-speaking world.