Chinanews client, Beijing, November 4 (Yuan Xiuyue) "Ping'er, persuade your mother to drink...Go, walk to your mother! Kneel down..."

　　This is the scene of the rehearsal of the drama "Thunderstorm" and "After the Thunderstorm" in early November.

To commemorate the 110th anniversary of Cao Yu's birth, Yanghua Drama produced "Thunderstorm" and "After the Thunderstorm" written by Cao Yu's daughter Wan Fang into a series of dramas, and invited French theater director Eric Lacascade to direct.

　　This is a fresh combination. How will foreign directors interpret "Thunderstorm"?

What new ideas will this version of "Thunderstorm" have?

Chinanews interviewed director Eric Lacascade.

Eric Lacascade is in the rehearsal hall.

Photo courtesy of Yanghua Drama

Minimalist choreography: everything is expressed by actors

　　According to Li Xiong, the producer of "Thunderstorm" and "Thunderstorm After", the crew has been in rehearsal for two months. At present, "Thunderstorm" has completed the rehearsal of the first three acts.

On the same day, the main actors Hawick Lau, He Saifei, Tong Ruimin, Kong Wei, Xu Deliang, Lu Xingchen, Liu Encheng and others rehearsed two clips of "Zhou Puyuan Forces Fanyi to Drink Medicine" and "Lu Shiping's Return to Zhou Mansion".

Judging from the rehearsal content, this version of "Thunderstorm" does have many changes.

　　The most obvious are the changes in stage design, costumes, and music.

The stage is a minimalist design, with only a few pieces of furniture on the stage.

Eric said that Zhou's family is a rich and indifferent patriarchal family, so it will be marble, high walls, and very few furniture. Everything is expressed by actors.

"In fact, I put them on a'nearly nude' stage to stimulate their performance. I took away everything they can rely on. I hope the actors use their bodies and words to tell stories. As for the Lu family , It will be a very different design."

　　The costumes of the actors are no longer the traditional costumes of the Republic of China. Eric said that he hopes that the styles of clothes in the play can communicate with today's young people, but they should not have obvious contemporary features, such as leather jackets and basketball shoes. It might be a suit.

He also asked the costume designer how big entrepreneurs like Zhou Puyuan would wear them in China today, and then try to get close.

　　In the rehearsal, Zhou Ping played by Hawick Lau and Sifeng played by Lu Xingchen had a "dance" scene. The two actors have to express emotions with their bodies in music.

And this piece of music was created by Eric invited an Argentine friend. He said that he didn't want to put his own personal style into it, but rather to build a new format so that young directors could see new things.

"Thunderstorm" rehearsal photo.

Photo courtesy of Yanghua Drama

Put "Thunderstorm" in the context of the moment, to attract young people as much as possible

　　In addition to the external form, the change of "Thunderstorm" lies in the presentation of its story.

For a French director, this is a difficult subject.

Eric revealed that he spent six months studying the script.

Read the script in the first three months, and reduce the content in the middle one and a half months.

Cao Yu once mentioned in the preface of "Thunderstorm" that the biggest difficulty in performing "Prologue" and "Ending" is that "Thunderstorm" is too long and needs to be abridged.

Eric said that he "heard Cao Yu's words", he kept the situation, but reduced a lot of content.

　　After a month and a half, he began to study the things to communicate with the actors and the possibility of acting.

In his view, drama still has to be related to life. When a director is rehearsing, he is not describing a "dead thing".

He did not watch other versions of "Thunderstorm", but tried his best to find the echo of this story in his heart.

　　Eric believes that "Thunderstorm" is a rich drama, which contains humanity, family, love, father-son relationship, social class, and these stories can travel through different periods and countries.

Therefore, he hopes to put this classic work in the current context, tell the current story, and attract young people as much as possible.

　　"We don't want to make something in a museum, but something today. Whether it is the physical state of the actors or the music that everyone hears, it is not a century ago." Eric said, "Thunderstorm" is also a movie. It's a very strong tragedy, but he doesn't want to play it very sad, but hopes to have a relatively happy and pleasant presentation, "We hope to find some light spots in the darkness."

Eric is directing the actors to rehearse.

Photo courtesy of Yanghua Drama

Make a work that Chinese audiences can understand

　　During the rehearsal, Eric also gave the actors as much space as possible, allowing the actors to show their ideas first.

He mentioned that Kong Wei, who plays Fanyi, often said, how is this person like Fanyi.

At this time, he would tell Kong Wei, don’t talk about Fanyi, just talk about yourself, because we don’t know who Fanyi is, but we know who you are, facing a man you love or a man you don’t love, What will you do?

If you play Fanyi now, it is a cliché.

　　"I will let the actors invent themselves. I want to see very creative and vital actors, so I give them a lot of freedom, but then I will fine-tune a lot of things. I hope they respect I adjusted things for them." Eric said.

　　Through the rehearsal, Eric saw many different performance styles, such as He Saifei who played Shi Ping. Her background in Yue opera fits this work very well. Lu Xingchen who plays Sifeng also has her own characteristics.

He revealed that maybe in the future he will invite two or three actors to work in France.

　　Coming to work in a completely unfamiliar country, Eric also encountered many challenges.

For example, for language challenges, he needs to use an interpreter to communicate with everyone.

There is also a time challenge. They need to produce two plays within 3 months.

More importantly, he also needs to enter the communication method and context that China is used to, and make a work that Chinese audiences can understand.

　　On December 5th, this Liantai opera will premiere in Haikou, and then will tour Shenyang, Tianjin, Beijing, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Changsha and other places.

On December 24, Liantai Opera will also have a live broadcast online.

　　Eric is looking forward to the reaction of the Chinese audience.

"Whether it is about Chinese society or Chinese drama, I belong to a preliminary stage of understanding, and I also want to see how it will develop later." (End)