Adapted from the award-winning novel of Mao Dun Literature Award, premiered by Shanghai Pingtan Troupe's "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" at the end of November
On September 8th, the Pingtan "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" adapted from the famous novel of the same name by the author Sun Ganlu made another important appearance after winning the "Five One Project" award and the Mao Dun Literature Award from the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China. The Shanghai Pingtan Troupe performed "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" in a unique style of "Pingtan Liantai Benxi". The first edition premiered on November 29th and 30th at the Tianchan Yifu stage, and the second edition will be released in the first half of next year.
"A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" by Pingtan is written by senior editor Zhang Yu and directed by first-class director Wang Xinyi. The Shanghai Pingtan Troupe has assembled the strongest cast of the entire troupe, including Gao Bowen, Wu Xinbo, Jiang Xiaobo, Huang Haihua, Zhou Hui, Lu Jinhua, Lu Jiawei, Wang Cheng, Wu Jinghui, Yu Shengqi, and others.
In 1931, the secret organ of the CPC in Shanghai was severely damaged, and decided to rebuild the top secret traffic line... Sun Ganlu wrote a novel "A Thousand Miles Map of Rivers and Mountains" with this as the theme, telling the story of the underground workers of the Party represented by Chen Qianli and others in a life and death struggle against the enemy on the hidden front of danger. The Pingtan painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" inherits and carries forward the spirit of the novel's main theme, endowing the novel with a tangible artistic image of the "steadfast believers in the dust of history".
The novel "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is deeply loved by readers
In the novel, there are many characters from both sides, and Sun Ganlu uses techniques such as parallel lines and cross supplements in the narrative, perfectly arranging the strokes of grass snake grey lines and foreshadowing for thousands of miles. Theater art has the characteristic of being fleeting, and audiences cannot watch it repeatedly in reverse. In the process of adapting the novel into Pingtan, screenwriter Zhang Yu adhered to the principle of "establishing the main idea and removing the branches", simplified the original work, summarized and juxtaposed the same dramatic event narrated by different characters from their respective perspectives, and focused on portraying several characters with distinct personalities in a limited space. The strokes and ink of the painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" in Pingtan are concentrated on Chen Qianli, Yi Junnian, and Ling Wen. The "True and False 'Xishi'" in the previous edition focuses on the legendary story of Chen Qianli, the protagonist, who was tasked with traveling to Shanghai to identify the traitors and release the fog, during a crisis when the 'Thousand Mile Jiangshan Plan' was disrupted due to the infiltration of internal traitors within the underground party. Through the copper walls and iron walls built by secret agents, he uses extraordinary intelligence and courage to cleverly obtain gold bars and discern the true and false 'Xishi'.
After reviewing the script of Pingtan's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", Sun Ganlu was very optimistic about Pingtan's interpretation of this work. He believes that using Pingtan to tell the story of Shanghai is very appropriate. The portrayal of character psychology and the description of everyday life are what Pingtan excels at the most. He hopes that his characters can be vividly and stereoscopically presented on stage through the art of Pingtan, which is unique to Shanghai style culture.
In the Pingtan script, the screenwriter has set up a "double male lead", in addition to the "red agent" Chen Qianli, there is also the heavily featured Kuomintang "ace agent" Yi Junnian. The head of the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe, Gao Bowen, took the initiative to invite Huang Haihua, a national first-class actor and successor of Jiang Diao, to play Chen Qianli. Gao Bowen then challenged the ace spy, Yi Junnian, with the code name "Xishi".
Chen Qianli and Yi Junnian in Pingtan are like two sides of one person. They were all former students of Professor Ye Qinian, but they embarked on completely different paths due to their different beliefs. When faced with crises and tests, their natural choices were also different, which best reflects the main idea of Pingtan's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains": in the face of sacrifice, Communist Party members are willing to sacrifice their loved ones, sacrifice themselves, achieve their cause, and protect the people; The Kuomintang people, on the other hand, achieved themselves and their own selves by sacrificing others and even their loved ones.
The Pingtan painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is mainly composed of danci, with Wu Xinbo, the chairman of the Shanghai Quyi Artists Association and a renowned commentator, as the main storyteller. In Wu Xinbo's view, it is very difficult to condense the original 250000 word novel into two nights of performance. He skillfully employs the art of storytelling to explain the essential plot of espionage dramas.
Huang Haihua plays Chen Qianli, Gao Bowen plays Yi Junnian, and Wu Xinbo serves as the narrator
Pingtan's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" firmly focuses on the essence of Pingtan, fully leveraging its artistic characteristics of storytelling, gimmicks, playing, singing, and performance, and exploring the artistic space of Pingtan's portrayal of red espionage and major themes. Unlike traditional storytellers who can play multiple roles at the same time, Pingtan's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" will adopt a "one person, one character" approach to help the audience become more familiar with the characters in the play. In addition to Huang Haihua playing Chen Qianli and Gao Bowen playing Yi Junnian, Jiang Xiaobo plays the spy leader Ye Qinian, Zhou Hui plays Ling Wen, Lu Jinhua plays Little Phoenix, Lu Jiawei plays Lin Shi, Wang Cheng plays Cui Wentai, Wu Jinghui plays You Tianxiao, and Yu Shengqi plays Uncle Li.
Wang Xinyi, Vice Chairman and First Class Director of the Shanghai Quyi Artists Association, stated that the stage presentation of Pingtan's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" will be an artistic creation that conforms to modern aesthetics. The storyteller does not wear a long robe or cheongsam, but instead wears the character's attire. On stage, there will be more than just one table and two chairs, but an immersive space will be created, and modern theater techniques will be introduced for stage scheduling. For example, in the third episode of "Smart Gold Bar", the "enemy and us dual time and space" technique will be used to strengthen the dramatic tension, allowing the audience to feel the difficulty and difficulty of "red agents" completing tasks. In the fifth chapter, Little Phoenix enters the "memory of time and space" and separates from Lu Zhongde, hoping to present the stage with uniqueness, delicacy, and even the ultimate.