Drama "Dust Settled": the universal core of Tibetan stories
China News Weekly reporter / Kui Yanzhang
Published in the 988th issue of China News Weekly on March 22, 2020
The fool was killed by his enemy, his soul was separated from his body, and he flew into the sky.
The ascending soul looked at the ground under his feet and said, "If the soul really has a reincarnation, I am still willing to return to this land." Then, the dust slowly fell and the sun rose.
This is the scene at the end of the drama "Dust Settled".
This drama is adapted from the novel of the same name by the famous writer Alai, directed by Hu Zongqi and written by Cao Lusheng.
Starting from March 26th, the tour will continue in 7 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
The team that produced this drama had also been operating the Shaanxi Renyi version of the drama "White Deer Plain" and "Ordinary World".
So far, "White Deer Plain" has accumulated more than 400 performances, and "Ordinary World" has accumulated more than 100 performances.
"Literature is returning to the stage of drama." Cao Lusheng said, "In the past ten years, various foreign drama genres have flooded into China, and now so-called post-modern drama or post-drama theater, the literacy is greatly reduced. "Bai Lu Yuan" The emergence of "The Ordinary World" and "Dust Settled" is a turning point."
Keep Alai's language
As early as 17 years ago, Cao Lusheng received an invitation from the director of Chengdu Opera, Zha Lifang, hoping that he could adapt Alai's novel "Dust Settled" into a drama.
At that time, Cao Lusheng was working as a full-time editor of foreign drama at the "Drama Art" of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He had studied primitive dramas and had always been interested in Tibetan dramas.
Cao Lusheng finished reading "Dust Settled" in one go. The narrative language of writer Alai fascinated him, especially the inner monologue of the protagonist of the novel.
"Alai wrote this novel after writing poems for more than ten years. There is poetry in the language. Some of the words are words that are a fusion of Tibetan language and Chinese, which are not found in other novels." Cao Lusheng said to " "China News Weekly" said.
It is precisely because of the importance of the language in Alai’s original work that Cao Lusheng deliberately retained a large number of inner monologues of the protagonist fool during the adaptation, and used this throughout the script. “Reading the original feels like a fool is talking to you from beginning to end, telling him about him. You will be completely immersed in the feelings of the demise of the entire Tusi system, his love, and his feelings for his parents." Cao Lusheng recalled "China News Weekly" that the volume of the script was much smaller than that of the novel, and he was in the process of deleting it. , Retains the revenge line and the love line, and condenses the many women in the novel into three, all named Zhuoma.
Regrettably, the script adapted by Cao Lusheng has not been arranged into a commercial drama for 17 years after its creation, except for a graduation drama produced at the Central Academy of Drama around 2008.
During this period, "Dust Settled" has been adapted into TV dramas, Sichuan operas, operas and other forms.
In Cao Lusheng's view, drama is actually the most suitable form of adaptation. "The essence of the work is the inner monologue of fools. Dance dramas have to dance, operas have to sing, and TV dramas have to present complex plots. Only dramas are most suitable for presenting inner monologues. "Cao Lusheng said.
Just like a drama, when Alai's novel "Dust Settled" was first published, it also faced a setback.
In 1994, Alai, who was working as a history teacher at a school, spent 4 years traveling tens of thousands of square kilometers in Sichuan’s Aba area, studying the ins and outs of the 18 Tibetan chieftains, and completed this full-length article. Debut.
The novel describes a prominent Kham Tibetan chieftain who gave birth to a foolish son with a Han wife after drinking.
This fool, whom everyone recognized, had a premonition and behavior beyond the times, and eventually became a witness to the rise and fall of the Tusi system.
In the few years after the work was completed, "Dust Settled" was rejected by more than a dozen publishers.
At that time, it was the market-oriented reform of publishing houses. Popular novels were popular. Most editors believed that there was no market for such pure literature to write stories about ethnic minorities.
In 1998, when Alai had no hope, People's Literature Publishing House published the book, and now it has sold more than 2 million copies.
In 2000, Alai, who was only 41 years old, won the Fifth Mao Dun Literature Award for "Dust Settled", becoming the youngest recipient of the Mao Dun Literature Award in history.
Foreign culture may be a plus
One day after the publication of "Dust Settled" 22 years ago, writer Alai, screenwriter Cao Lusheng, director Hu Zongqi, and performer Zhang Li had just chatted for two hours in the coffee shop of Sofitel Chengdu.
In the end, Alai decided to authorize the adaptation rights of the drama "Dust Settled" and agreed to serve as the literary consultant for this drama.
The adaptation of "Dust Settled" into a drama was first promoted by Zhang Ligang.
Zhang Ligang is the chairman of Jiuwei Culture.
In the early years, his company's business was mainly to introduce foreign plays such as "Notre Dame de Paris" and "Rock Mozart".
In recent years, he has increased the business line of dramas adapted from domestic classics, and successively operated Shaanxi People's Art version of "Bai Lu Yuan" and "Ordinary World" and other plays.
The number of readers of the original work is an important consideration for Zhang Ligang in deciding whether to adapt it to a drama.
"The performance of the audience alone is not enough to support (a drama). But the coverage of literature is much larger than that of the performance, and there is a natural fit between the two." Zhang Ligang told China News Weekly that last year When making suitable adaptations, he also considered "Besiege" and "Old Things in the South of the City", but gave up because it was difficult to get the copyright.
In the end, he set his sights on Alai's "Dust Settled".
This work has a wide range of readers, and Cao Lusheng has already written the script, which will save the time cost of re-developing the script.
But Zhang Ligang's initial concern was: Can a story about the demise of the chieftain system in remote Tibetan areas impress the audience living in the metropolis?
Zhang Li just dispelled his worries after reading the original work.
Although the outer shell of "Dust Settled" is a story far away from real urban life, the core is universal. "From prosperity to decline of a family, there is nothing to be seen at the end, which is the same as "Dream of Red Mansions"." I just told China News Weekly that if the core is sufficiently universal, the culture of Tibetan areas may be a plus for visual appreciation.
Zhang Ligang decided to invite director Hu Zongqi to direct.
Hu Zongqi is the first-level director of the Zongzheng Opera Troupe and previously directed the Shaanxi People's Art version of "Bai Lu Yuan".
In Zhang Ligang’s view, Hu Zongqi’s adaptation of literary classics pays great attention to loyalty to the original work. This is consistent with Zhang Ligang’s philosophy. To create a peak of your own." Zhang Ligang recalled to China News Weekly.
Local theater troupes perform local dramas
Before the formal rehearsal, director Hu Zongqi closed in Taihu Lake for a month.
He watched "Dust Settlement" at least 10 times, and also browsed all the papers about the book, and finally drew the sub-shots of each scene of "Dust Settlement".
At first, the team considered mainly using Tibetan actors to fit the background of the characters in the original work.
However, in actual production, it was found that there are not many Tibetan actors with strong Chinese expression ability, and the lines are the most important part of this drama.
In the end, the team chose Sichuan Renyi, a team dominated by Han actors.
When filming and adapting a work with regional characteristics, the method of using local performance agencies to perform is a method that Zhang Li found after running the drama "White Deer Plain" and "Ordinary World".
"White Deer Plain" and "The Ordinary World" are stories that took place in the northwest, both starred by actors from Shaanxi People's Art, while the story "Dust Settled", which took place in the southwest, was performed by the team of Sichuan People's Art, which is natural.
In addition, "Dust Settled" has a magical and surreal plot.
In order to achieve this on stage, the magician team is invited to design the agency.
A plot in the original book is: the thief who steals poppy seeds hides the poppy in his ears. After being caught, he asks to have his head cut off and return it to his owner.
In the end, the owner buried his head in the soil, and poppies grew.
On the stage, the team used organs to fully display the poppy growing out of the skull.
The official rehearsal started on January 4.
Zhang Li just went to the rehearsal site to explore the class and found that Hu Zongqi's way of guiding the play was quite different.
Most directors like to arrive at the scene, after many trials, trial and error, and then determine the actor's scheduling method.
And Hu Zongqi thought out all the details before rehearsing, and the work on site was only the execution of the idea.
In addition, Hu Zongqi does not rely on the use of stars. On the stage, he hopes that all actors will be in the play, rather than highlighting a certain person.
The style of Hu Zongqi's directing plays is widely known outside the circle when he directed the drama version of "Bai Lu Yuan" in 2016.
This drama, without a star and using the Shaanxi people's art team, is considered highly loyal to Chen Zhongshi's original work.
The year that it was performed was when Chen Zhongshi passed away. The high quality of the play itself, along with people's reminiscence of Chen Zhongshi, made the reputation and influence of this realistic drama unexpectedly out of the circle.
It was from this year that the original local dramas on the Chinese stage began to slowly return from avant-garde expressions to realism and classic adaptations.
For a long period of time before this, almost all works that attracted public attention from Chinese original dramas were pioneer dramas, among which works such as "I Love xxx" and "Rhino in Love" directed by Meng Jinghui in the mid and late 1990s were the main representatives. .
In traditional dramas, apart from masterpieces such as "The Tea House", there were few productions that could trigger topics at one time.
It wasn't until "White Deer Plain" that the reality-themed drama adapted from such a famous book became a trend again, and "Dust Settled" is the latest work under this trend.
According to the screenwriter Cao Lusheng, this is a common "spiral" development process in the history of drama. "There will be a stage in which to negate the text, and various avant-garde elements must be added, but after the experiment is over, there will be a return." Cao Lusheng Said to "China News Weekly."
China News Weekly, Issue 10, 2021
Statement: The publication of the "China News Weekly" manuscript is authorized in writing