Ye Tong: The "First Time" at the Age of 60

90% of the audience's impression of Ye Tong may still be limited to "Xu Xian" in the TV series "Legend of the White Snake". It has been 31 years since the premiere of the drama. The physical theater "King Lear" starring Ye Tong made its debut at the Shanghai YOUNG Theater on September 9th and 10th, and some still refer to her as "Xu Xian".

"She has a 41 year career in the entertainment industry, starring in 63 films. In 1982, her debut work" Youth in Fire "was nominated for the Hong Kong Film Awards, and she won the Best Actress award twice for her performances in" 7 Days of Misrepresentation "and" Marriage Without Words ". She is also active in TV dramas and stage plays." This is the entry for "Ye Tong" on Baidu Baike. ".

The first impression of Ye Tong among viewers of "King Lear" is that he is unusually thin. Long term exercise and strict diet have made her as light as a girl at the age of 60.

The traces of time on Ye Tong are not obvious

Ye Tong is an experienced actress and celebrity who candidly shares the confusion of rehearsing "King Lear", bridging the gap between academic directors and the media with interesting and detailed memories. "How could anyone not like Ye Tong?" The meeting ended and everyone whispered to each other.

"Fortunately, I love learning and have good psychological qualities."

Ye Tong does not need to rely on the stage gilding. She has acted in many popular stage plays. In 2020, she was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Award of the 29th Hong Kong Stage Drama Awards with the black comedy "The Dead Man's Mobile Phone".

In 2021, "King Lear" premiered at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and director Deng Shu won the "Director of the Year Award" at the International Association of Performing Arts Critics Drama Critics Awards. Ye Tong, who played King Lear, won the "Actor of the Year Award".

In King Lear, Ye Tong, who has been in the industry for 41 years, challenged the physical theater for the first time. "I also accepted the invitation because of challenges." Before joining the group, Ye Tong read through Shakespeare's original work "King Lear". "As a result, everything I prepared, the director said no and no, and I was really a bit defeated. Fortunately, I have ambition, love to learn, and good psychological qualities. I try my best to cooperate with his requirements, haha."

After joining the group, Ye Tong had some regrets. "Rehearsal was completely different from what I thought. The director asked for curiosity, but what he wanted to express was to give the audience a space for imagination. When I presented the character's reaction directly, he asked if I could use another method. The director kept motivating me and stimulating my imagination. In many scenes, I used to use dialogue to make the audience understand what story was being told." King Lear "is a bit stubborn, it doesn't please the audience, but allows them to feel it."

King Lear

King Lear

King Lear

On the first day of rehearsal for "King Lear", Deng Shurong divided the 9 female actors on the production team into two teams and broke their wrists. For a considerable period of time, Ye Tong didn't know what he was doing. "We played sports games and football every day, and the director asked everyone to run and dance. Sometimes, we suddenly danced for 30 minutes without stopping. Sometimes, he asked us to turn our hearts, but our bodies couldn't move."

"Modern people sit all the time and rarely move. I need actors to detach themselves from the sense of security in reality and immerse themselves in a different spiritual world. Actors go through the extremes of stillness and movement, and learn the minimalist art of starting from the body. If three actions can complete expression, why do they need 30 actions?" In Deng Shurong's view, some actors can feel the character's emotions, but cannot express them, while others do not feel them and can only move around, which is not enough. "I improve their ability to feel and express through training, encourage them to enter the ocean of feeling, and accurately express their image."

"I'm really walking, looking at my opponent."

King Lear is the role that every actor dreams of. "When King Lear passed away at the age of 80, he had the highest power and experienced unparalleled honors, anger, and despair. Suddenly, he fell and became unbearable, and his experiences were too rich." Ye Tong admitted that the stage gave her more choices at the age of 60. "As an actor, my wealth is life experience, and the older I get, the better I grasp the role. But to be honest, because of my age, I have fewer roles to choose, which the audience thinks is not suitable, or the film and television company has its own considerations. So I am very happy to have the opportunity to explore the rich and tumultuous life of an elderly person. My age is suitable for playing King Lear. It may also be that I have had a performance experience of dressing up as a man, and the director considered me." Bonus points. "

After experiencing self doubt and adaptation, Ye Tong found that the absence of lines in "King Lear" magnified her sensory perception. Deng Shurong trained actors in leg strength through short steps and other techniques. Ye Tong sighed, "I usually don't pay attention to how I walk. Through the physical theater, I am really walking, watching my opponent's actors, and communicating. Because there are no lines, the audience is fully focused on the stage, making me more sensitive. There is a slight change in the opponent's actors and environment, and I can immediately feel it. This time in Shanghai, I am performing in a venue as large as YOUNG Theater for the first time, and my emotions and body expressions are also adjusted accordingly."

King Lear

King Lear

King Lear

Some actors avoid the comparison between art and business, but Ye Tong doesn't care. "I've made a lot of films like this, calculating what elements are popular in the market and what groups are pleasing... The market needs it, and the audience needs to be pleasing, there's no problem. There's also a kind of play that pursues artistic diversification, with poetic visuals that I think are also very good. If the audience has specific ideas about 'King Lear', there may be a gap when they come in to see it. The original work of 'King Lear' is rich in content and characters, and we've condensed it into 90 minutes. The theme and presentation are very special, and the audience may appreciate it, but they may not like it. But we can't say we're not good, and there are also viewers who say it's good and they like it."

Under the stage, Ye Tong is not as heavy as King Lear

Going to the theater alone

Deng Shurong did not even allow actors to breathe in "King Lear". He explained, "Controlling stage time is more difficult than space. The music and sound effects of 'King Lear' require a quiet atmosphere, giving the audience and performers a sense of time passing." He detested repetition and proposed for the first time to rehearse 'King Lear' in a physical theater without lines. "My team was scared to death, and they didn't want to give up the most important language of Shakespeare's plays. I think the most important thing about drama is the power of life behind the script, which can also be done in a nonverbal way, and the intermediate transformation process is very interesting."

Deng Shurong spent two years completing "King Lear", which is the canvas in his hand. "The actors are like flowing sculptures, combined with stage lighting, music, and installation art to create a poetic imagination. The audience constructs a logical and emotional world with their own eyes. If they have read Shakespeare's" King Lear ", they should understand that our content comes entirely from the script. 80% of the audience has not seen the script for" King Lear ", and constructing their own logical world according to the current stage image is very challenging for the audience, as well as for me."

After the performance of King Lear in Shanghai, it sparked a massive discussion among the audience, asking what the actors were playing and what the director wanted to express? Deng Shurong had already foreseen this. He said before the performance, "I am currently traveling, hiking, and watching a play alone. When watching a play with friends, we need to eat and chat first. Sitting in the theater, we need to discuss what this action represents, and after watching, we need to talk about whether we understand it. In fact, the most important thing is yourself. On the way home, think about what you saw today. Art does not tell us where the end is, it tells us whether we can continue to walk."

Director Deng Shurong of King Lear