Blue Sky: Goodbye, goodbye
Reporter: Ni Wei
On the afternoon of June 8, when Lan Lanye died in his sleep, the Beijing People's Art Theater was busy.
Four days later will be the big day of Renyi's 70th anniversary. The whole hospital is busy preparing for the commemorative performance and live broadcast every night.
A reporter met Pu Cunxin in the rehearsal hall. He seemed to be prepared for this day. He smiled and said, "It's very successful. His wonderful life is like a play. It's time for the curtain call." His tone was calm and relieved, but his eyebrows were lowered. For a moment, showing exhaustion and trance.
Pu Cunxin said that Lan Lanye was seriously ill and refused treatment. "It's a very good choice, why is it so painful. In the end, he couldn't eat anything, and the wax torch turned to ashes and tears began to dry." In a TV interview at the beginning of the year, Lan Lanye revealed that he had pancreatic cancer.
The highlight of Renyi's 70th anniversary is the collective performance of the second generation of the "Tea House" team on the day of the anniversary, and it was broadcast live for the first time.
Liang Guanhua plays the treasurer Wang, Pu Cunxin plays Chang Siye, and Yang Lixin plays Qin Zhongyi.
In 1958, "Tea House" premiered, Qin Zhongyi was performed by Lan Lanye, when he was in his early 30s.
The people on the same stage include Yu Zhi, Zheng Rong, Ying Ruocheng, Huang Zongluo, etc., screenwriter Lao She, director Jiao Juyin and Xia Chun, who are the founding and golden generation of Renyi.
In that generation, Lan Lanye was the last to leave the stage.
In 2020, he also took the stage and participated in "Home"; in 2021, he directed "Wu Wang Jin Ge Yue Wang Jian" for the third time.
He once said: "I am quite satisfied with this life sometimes, even a little proud, but it is more about twists and turns and ups and downs. I think it is life that taught me how to create on stage." As long as he still Standing on the stage is a coordinate of Chinese drama.
Now, the old coordinates are retiring.
"Acting is just a little bit of a thing"
"He has a kind of decency in his bones." Wang Keran, artistic director of Yanghua Theatre, can see that this kind of decency of Lan Lanye comes from the firm values in his heart.
If you respect him, he will be very happy and treat you as his own. If you don't respect him, he will sometimes hit a snag, "He has a lot of edges and corners."
In terms of drama, Wang Keran feels that Lantian's values are "firmly and thoroughly safeguarding the dignity of human art".
This happens to Lantian Ye who is not inconsistent.
"The world of Renyi was created by them, and the genre of Renyi's drama was established by them," Wang Keran told China News Weekly, "That generation has a sense of honor, and he is the most acceptable to me. of".
Lantianye is the relic of the golden generation of Beijing arts and crafts.
That generation was active from the founding of New China until the early 1990s, shaping the dramatic style of Beijing Renyi, and what Jiao Juyin called the "Chinese School" was also established in their performances.
Their most well-known collective work, the first release of "Tea House", now seems to be a brilliant team, but it was only ordinary at the time.
Lan Lanye plays the capitalist Qin Zhongyi. In the script, Lao She described the role as "dressed well, with a spring breeze", which is very in line with Lan Lanye's dignified temperament.
At the end of 1956, Lao She finished writing the script, and Beijing Renyi established a team and assigned roles.
Lan Lanye is not familiar with capitalists. After he got the role, he immediately went to experience life. He went to teahouses around Qianmen and Andingmen to make friends with entrepreneurs.
At that time, there was no hurry to do things. For the first rehearsal of "Tea House", I spent more time on experiencing life than rehearsing.
After experiencing life back, director Jiao Juyin asked the actors to make sketches of the characters' life first, so as to construct their own characters, and finally start the rehearsal.
Lan Lanye made up a sketch called "Quail Fight", saying that the second master Qin got an excellent quail, and Eunuch Pang took a fancy to it. The second master Qin deliberately opened his mouth so that Eunuch Pang could not afford it.
Then, he sent the quails to Eunuch Pang's mansion. This superficial favor made Eunuch Pang greatly insulted and ordered him to blow up and drink.
Qin Erye listened, and only replied coldly, Mrs. Pang, hello Yaxing.
Once the sketch was performed, the whole house was full of applause.
Lan Lanye has a deep understanding of these styles and methods of Renyi.
When he starred in "Jia Ziyuan" at the age of 85, although he had experienced vicissitudes and experience, he still spent a lot of effort to construct the image of the character from his heart.
Beijing Renyi attaches great importance to the "deep inner experience" and Stanislavsky's theory of "starting from the self", all of which have inspired him and will be used for life.
He was naturally resentful that these theories had been rejected.
This doesn't mean stubbornness.
In the years when "Xiao Xianrou" was widely criticized, someone asked Lantianye, but he expressed his solidarity.
He said, "Xiao Xianrou" is an insulting title, an actor does not necessarily become an artist, you can say that the performance is not good enough, but don't insult him.
Someone proposed the "Beijing Renyi School of Drama", but he also disagreed.
He said that Renyi has indeed formed its own style after decades, but it cannot be regarded as the leader of Chinese dramas. "Acting is just a little thing."
He thought about such a little thing all his life, and he did it all his life.
Since the establishment of Beijing Renyi Institute in 1952, he has been merged into Renyi with the Central Academy of Drama Repertory Troupe.
He has acted in more than 70 dramas such as "Bright Sky", "Peking Man", "Tea House", "Guan Hanqing", "The Man with a Gun", "Cai Wenji" and "Wang Zhaojun". Qin Zhongyi in "The Tea House", Dong Si in "Cai Wenji", Hu Hanye Shanyu in "Wang Zhaojun" and so on.
After being transferred to the director's establishment, he has directed more than ten Chinese and foreign dramas.
After experiencing the turmoil of personnel and affairs that seems like a lifetime, the method and mood of acting are changing.
When he played "Tea House" for the first time, Lan Lanye was 31 years old, which was the age of Qin Zhongyi in the first act; in the third act, the roles were already over 70, and he had to play hard.
When the last round of "Tea House" was performed in 1992, half his life had passed, and he was already 65 years old, and the first act became a problem.
In order to show the unrestrainedness of the young Qin Erye, he changed the way of appearance and set Qin Erye to the state of riding a horse.
One strode across the threshold, slammed down the big placket of the robe tucked at his waist, and threw off the braid around his neck. The man caught up and took the whip. A series of movements were done in one go, which is unforgettable.
In 1987, Lan Lanye retired on time at the age of 60. It seemed that he had completely bid farewell to drama and devoted himself to painting and calligraphy.
At the invitation of others, occasionally act in TV dramas.
In those years, his unintentional works in "Fengshen Bang" and "Desire" won him nationwide recognition, and then completely left the public eye.
No one may have imagined that, later, Lan Lanye could act until he was in his 90s and lived to the age of 95.
When he was young, he was a well-known "sick child". The root cause of his illness was the "Great Leap Forward". At that time, he made a surprise rehearsal, and even "Tea House", which was not a revolutionary theme, was also used in the "Great Leap Forward" and performed three times a day. field.
In addition to acting, he has to participate in steel smelting and ore smashing, and his body can't bear it.
Since his early 30s, he has never slept without sleeping pills.
Fainted in the background more than once because of low blood pressure.
Whoever wanted to leave the drama, but his body miraculously improved, his blood pressure returned to normal, and he became the toughest person in the old generation.
At the age of 84, at the invitation of Renyi leaders, he returned to the stage after an absence of 19 years and starred in the drama "Home".
Lan Lanye's "Declining Years Reform" actually started from then on.
"You are human, and I am human too!"
Now that he is back on stage, Lantian wants to do something different.
His determination was evident from the casting of his return work "Home".
In 2011, Zhang Heping, the then president of Beijing Renyi, held a "Hongmen Banquet" in the cafeteria. The guests were two couples, Zhu Xu and Lan Lanye.
After three rounds of drinking, Zhang Heping changed the subject and invited the two old men to come forward and play roles in the upcoming "Home".
At this time, it has been 19 years since Lan Lanye performed a drama for the last time.
Zhu Xu promised very succinctly, he never left the stage of the drama.
Lan Lanye, who has been unfamiliar with acting for too long, has repeatedly declined.
The conversation fell into embarrassment, and Mrs. Zhu Xu, Song Xueru, made a round at the right time, saying that this matter is very important, and she should think about it carefully before returning to the theater.
A few days later, Lan Lanye's reply was that he still didn't want to act, but several talent leaders present did not let go.
So I started chatting, Lan Lanye talked about art, and said that according to the conventional idea, I must be asked to play Mr. Gao and Zhu Xu to play Feng Leshan, but artistic creation must be reversed. I have never played the villain, if I play the role of the villain What about the hypocrite Feng Leshan?
It didn't take long for the Renyi leader to discuss with Zhu Xu and switch roles.
What he said became true, Lan Lanye had no reason to refuse.
This year, he returned to the stage of drama with "Home".
He is 84 years old, and his focus has long been shifted to painting.
The second year was the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Beijing Renyi Academy. The theater commemorated the year of Jiazi with a new play "Jiazi Garden", and moved Lantianye out of the mountain.
This is a story that happened in a nursing home.
Lan Lanye starred as the protagonist, old architect Huang Fangwu. Renyi Zhu Lin, Zhu Xu, Zheng Rong and other veteran actors all appeared on the stage. The average age of the six leading actors was 82 years old.
After a round of performances, Lan Lanye felt that he was not unfamiliar, but had grown better than before.
What grows is life experience, and the understanding of life, society and people has changed.
Why is it still possible to get back the feeling after nearly 20 years?
He said that it is not about how good his acting ability and skills are, but he feels that drama is his life, and it is life that teaches him how to create.
When he was young, he played the old man in the play, and later he was older than the character.
In the last scene of "Tea House", Shopkeeper Wang, Second Master Qin and Fourth Master Chang scattered paper money to pay homage to each other and bid farewell to each other in despair.
This is a classic scene on the stage of Chinese drama.
After ten years of suspension of the "Cultural Revolution", when it was rerun in 1979, Lan Lanye had a deep understanding of this scene.
"I witnessed with my own eyes some people were tortured and imprisoned... Not only the physical destruction, but also the blows and insults to the mind and personality," he once recalled, "not only knowing and understanding, but also having experience."
In "Jiazi Garden", Huang Fangwu talked about the old building's past, "In 1945, this was the CCP's underground party liaison station." At that moment, it seemed that Lan Lanye, who was also in his late years, was reminiscing about his life.
In 1945, Lan Lanye was a Peking underground party. His home was an underground party stronghold, with a radio station and an antenna.
It was then that he began to devote himself to theatre, a job assigned to him from above: to use theatre to carry out revolutionary activities.
The name Lantianye is also a pseudonym for underground work. His original name was Wang Runsen. He was born in Raoyang County, Hebei Province in 1927, and moved to Beiping with his family when the moon was full.
In the winter of 1948, the Pingjin campaign developed rapidly, and Peiping became an isolated city. He moved to the Shijingshan Power Plant with the organization, and the PLA headquarters sent them a pig and a sheep during the Chinese New Year.
The following year, when Peiping was liberated, he was one of the first victors to enter Peiping City.
In the play, Grandma Jin recalled that "the eldest girl and the little daughter-in-law go to the street to perform a yangko dance", which is the scene of the PLA entering the city. The 22-year-old Lan Lanye stood on the Jinshui Bridge in Tiananmen Square and saw this scene.
The memory came to 1968, "This place was looted... Grandpa died tragically under this big tree".
He had seen such a scene before.
In 1966, when the Cultural Revolution came, Beijing Renyi posted the first big-character poster, which forced a line from Molière's play "The Miserly Man", and criticized Beijing Renyi as a black den of literature and art. .
Lan Lanye and his colleague Liang Bingkun thought it was ridiculous, and the next day they wrote a big-character poster to refute it and signed their names.
At the time, he didn't know what the movement was about, and he attributed it to his "consistent orthodoxy."
The two of them naturally became the first people to be impacted by Beijing Renyi.
At a discussion meeting on his expulsion from the party, colleagues from the unit raised their hands in approval. An old lady also took the initiative to expose him, saying that he had been to her house and encouraged her to besiege the rebels.
Lan Lanye laughed dumbly, he didn't even know where her home was.
In "Jiazi Garden", every time a period is mentioned, the handwriting left by the people at that time will be released in the play, and there is also a sentence written by Lantianye.
He waved and wrote down seven words: "You are a human being, and so am I!"
The trauma caused by the political movement may have made his trust in people even more cherished.
He has an old-fashioned emotional side, which makes some of his stories reverberate across distant time and space.
The "Wu Wang Jin Ge Yue Wang Sword" directed by him in the 1980s was written by the writer Bai Hua. After writing, the film "Bitter Love" written by Bai Hua was criticized.
Beijing Renyi therefore shelved "Wu Wang Jin Ge Yue Wang Jian".
A year later, after the wind passed, Lan Lan Ye restarted the play. After the performance in Beijing, the response was enthusiastic, and several central leaders gave high praise, so they started a national tour.
After more than 70 performances, Bai Hua called and asked if the play was still being performed. At that time, Bai Hua was organized in the Wuhan Military Region. He said that someone in the army said that Beijing was performing a Bai Hua play, which was insinuating some people. Phenomenon.
Lan Lanye didn't care, but only later learned that Bai Hua had been criticized for more than a year because of this play.
Thirty-one years later, in 2014, Beijing Renyi asked Lan Lanye to choose one of the 14 plays he had directed for a revival. He chose "Wu Wang Jin Ge Yue Wang Sword" without any hesitation.
It is neither his most influential work, nor his most famous play.
The reason for this is "for Bai Hua's talented script, but encountered an abnormal public opinion environment at that time."
He called Bai Hua who was in Shanghai, and Bai Hua was surprised.
This drama retells the allusion of "paying for your money and trying your best". Goujian, the king of Yue, endured humiliation and burdened, and finally completed the great cause of restoring the country, but his selfish desires were inflated, repeating the tragedy of King Wu. It is a story that learns from history.
"The big public opinion environment is different. These dramas are good dramas and have practical significance. This is the principle of our drama." Lan Lanye showed a stubborn side.
The story doesn't end here.
At the beginning of 2021, 94-year-old Lan Lanye walked into the art rehearsal hall on crutches and rehearsed "Wu Wang Jin Ge Yue Wang Sword" again.
He thought of his old friend Bai Hua, who passed away two years ago, with a sad expression on his face. He choked and said that Bai Hua wrote this play with a strong sense of family and country.
But at that time, he encountered the opposite misunderstanding, and Lan Lanye did not let go for half his life.
"Confession takes strength, but forgiveness takes greater strength"
When he was in his 80s, Lan Lanye occasionally went to the small theater to watch new plays by young people.
Once, at the Penghao Theater in the Hutong, he told the playwright Wan Fang that he wanted her to write a play about two old people.
He originally wanted to cooperate with his old friend Jiao Huang in Shanghai, but by chance, the play was contracted to be produced by Yanghua Drama, directed by Lai Shengchuan, and the collaborator became Li Liqun.
The play is called "Winter Journey", and the theme is profound.
The two protagonists, Chen Qixiang and Lao Jin, were classmates and best friends when they were young. Later, during the "Cultural Revolution" period, Chen Qixiang betrayed Lao Jin under pressure, causing him to be wrongfully imprisoned and his family destroyed.
In his twilight years, Chen Qixiang found Lao Jin, whom he had not seen for many years, and wanted to ask for his forgiveness.
Wan Fang set the theme as hurt and forgiveness, formerly called "Confession".
Wan Fang recalled to "China News Weekly" that Lan Lanye did not make any requirements for the script. When she conceived the content, she thought of her father Cao Yu and the experience of that generation. She was most familiar with the ten years of the "Cultural Revolution". .
She used the most cruel era to write manuscript papers and do spiritual biographies for her parents. "Repentance requires strength, and forgiveness requires greater strength."
Lan Lanye liked this script and was very moved when he first read it.
"What an actor is most afraid of is encountering a scene that makes his heart move. What really touched me in this script is not only the experiences in the play, but also a kind of release." He said.
"Winter Journey" toured fifty or sixty times, and even went to theaters in Taiwan, creating a sensation wherever it went.
"I think Mr. Amano has put all his emotions into this play, and has a kind of shocking power." At the end of the play, when Lantian walked off the stage with a cane, Wan Fang felt that he had become one with Lao Jin in body and mind.
"This play has his life experience. He does not sing his own songs in other people's roles, but sings the joys and sorrows of most people in his own destiny." Yanghua Drama Artistic Director, Producer of "Winter Journey" Wang Keran explained this state of physical and mental unity. He felt that the blue sky in his old age burst out with high-energy performance energy.
Every time he has to clench his palms tightly and sweat from the beginning to the end.
The blue sky savage is tall and big, with clear outlines, and he has kept a handsome back for most of his life.
Wan Fang thinks that he has a certain temperament, so the play paths are mostly the capitalist Qin Erye of "Tea House" and Hu Hanye Shanyu of "Wang Zhaojun".
In "Winter Journey", through the character of Lao Jin, he finally took off that "noble coat".
Lao Jin is a victim who has experienced all kinds of hardships. Now entering the desolate old age, Lan Lanye has performed a very life-like atmosphere of old age.
This play is extremely exhausting. In the 92 minutes, 88-year-old Lan Lanye and 63-year-old Li Liqun were on stage every second. Even for young actors, it was a physical test.
In the afternoon before each performance, Lan Lanye had to reword the words with Li Liqun.
Before the show, the two held hands and cheered each other backstage.
Lan Lanye not only did not feel tired, but the drama enthusiasm continued to burn.
He also has a wish, hoping to direct a play at the end, the theme is Cao Xueqin.
He had invited Guo Qihong, the screenwriter of "Du Fu" and "Li Bai", but Guo Yi declined because of the preparation work. He mentioned it to He Jiping, the screenwriter of "Jia Ziyuan". and many more.
This wait, will not wait any longer.
"He is a person who lives at ease. What he does and says is what he wants to do and say." Wan Fang said, "So he keeps acting, and I think it is also his wish. He wouldn't have thought of what to leave behind in his artistic career." She grew up in Beijing Renyi, and Lantianye was the "Uncle Amano" who watched her grow up, and the two knew each other very well.
Through the story written by Wan Fang, Lan Lanye revealed his twilight state of mind.
He said that the themes of repentance, forgiveness and recollection are also the life issues he is thinking about.
Although he is almost 90 years old, many things in life cannot be let go. It is the hurt between people, and the forgiveness and understanding after that.
In "Winter Journey", Lao Jin and Lao Chen have a knee-jerk conversation, ironing the knot that has been entangled for half a lifetime.
Not just letting go of grievances, but crossing a desperate situation and entering another realm of life.
At the end, Lao Jin walked down slowly, leaning on a cane, facing the lights on the side of the stage.
He left his old friends behind, as well as his past, and the tall figure disappeared into the light.
"Goodbye, goodbye", Lao Jin left the last sentence.
Wan Fang burst into tears.
Lan Lanye also walked down, "Goodbye, goodbye".
(This article refers to "Yanyu Lifetime Blue Sky Wild")
"China News Weekly" Issue 22, 2022
Statement: The publication of "China News Weekly" manuscripts is authorized in writing