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<h3 style="margin-top:0;"><a style="font-weight: 500; font-size: 21px;line-height: 30px; margin-top:25px; margin-bottom: 10px;" href="http://u.osu.edu/mclc/2017/12/29/stage-tribute-to-lao-she/" target="_blank">Stage tribute to Lao She</a></h3>
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<p>Source: China Daily (12/28/17)<br />
<a href="http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201712/28/WS5a443773a31008cf16da3e31.html">Stage tribute to literary master</a><br />
By Chen Nan | China Daily</p>
<p>A play comprising five short stories by Lao She returns to Beijing after its recent two-month nationwide tour. Chen Nan reports.</p>
<p>Theater director Lin Zhaohua met Shu Yi, the son of novelist and playwright Lao She (1899-1966), after Lin premiered his play Hamlet, adapted from William Shakespeare's work, in October 2008.</p>
<p>While congratulating Lin on his take on the classic, Shu talked about commemorating his father's 110th birth anniversary.</p>
<p>Every year, commemorative programs, like staging plays written by Lao She--which include <em>Teahouse</em>, <em>Rickshaw Boy</em>, <em>Four Generations under One Roof</em> and <em>The Peking Man--</em>are held to pay tribute to Lao She, whose original name was Shu Qingchun.</p>
<p>Regarded as one of the literary giants of the country, Lao She is noted for his works with a strong Beijing flavor and a vivid depiction of human nature.</p>
<p>However, both Lin and Shu Yi wanted to do something different. So, they decided to produce <em>Five Acts of Life</em>, a play comprising five short stories by Lao She, which offers a vivid view of Chinese society from 1898, the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), to 1948.</p>
<p>Before that, Lao She's short stories had never been adapted for theater.</p>
<p>The play, directed by Lin, premiered to great success at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, with four sold-out shows, in March 2010. And it has toured the country every year since then with hundreds of performances.</p>
<p><em>Five Acts of Life</em> will return to Beijing on Jan 2, after a two-month nationwide tour.</p>
<p>During a recent rehearsal at Beijing's 300-year-old Zhengyici Theater, veteran actor Li Chengru, along with six actors, were preparing for Assuming Office, or Shang Ren, which takes a bold look at the tensions and blurred boundaries between criminals and the authorities.</p>
<p>"Though these five short stories were written decades ago, they are still relevant today," says Li. The 63-year-old Beijing native has performed different roles in the five parts of the play since 2012.</p>
<p>In <em>Assuming Office</em>, he plays the role of a head of a police department, who used to be a criminal like all the other members of the office. He tries to be a good man but has to make compromises.</p>
<p>Speaking about his performance, Li says: "It is exhausting and challenging to switch between different roles. But a major motivation for me is the Beijing flavor and the way people lived and spoke, which Lao She portrayed."</p>
<p>Li also says he took up the project as he wants that the audience, especially the younger generation, to experience Beijing culture, which is in danger of dying out.</p>
<p>Wang Xiang, who adapted the five short stories into the play, says: "The city's unique personality is vanishing due to fast urbanization. Beijing has become an international city, but it has lost its original character, such as the Beijing dialect."</p>
<p>Wang says that he accompanied Lin to the Edinburgh International Festival in the United Kingdom in August 2008, two months before they decided to turn the five pieces into a play. During their trip, they went to London and watched English theater and film director Peter Brook's play <em>Fragments</em>. Brook brought together five short stories by Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett.</p>
<p>"The play was performed by two actors and one actress. We met director Brook after the performance and Lin talked with him for a long time," says Wang. "Looking back, it seems it (the performance and the conversation that followed) was an inspiration for <em>Five Acts of Life</em>."</p>
<p>The other stories in the play are <em>Menage a Trois</em>, which is about two war buddies sharing one wife; Liu's <em>Compound</em>, which follows an ill-fated woman's road to suicide under the constant bullying of her husband and in-laws; and <em>The Death Dealing Spear</em>, which tells of the dwindling fortunes of an armed escort after the introduction of firearms.</p>
<p>Chinese director and actor Fang Xu plays three roles in the play--a fortuneteller, a kung fu master and a Peking Opera actor. "What makes Lao She's works timeless is his insights into human nature and his wit," says the 51-year-old.</p>
<p>Fang graduated from the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama and spent his youth in a courtyard of a populated hutong area. He says he feels connected to Lao She's stories.</p>
<p>"The characters in his works remind me of my neighbors in the hutong when I was a child. They are so ordinary, vivid and real, which is fascinating to me," Fang says.</p>
<p>Fang started to work on his own adaptation of Lao She's works in 2012.</p>
<p>His first attempt, a one-man show based on a story called <em>This Life of Mine</em>, tells the story of a low-ranking policeman in Beijing in the early 20th century. It was a big success when it premiered at the Central Academy of Drama.</p>
<p>Fang also adapted Lao She's novels--<em>Divorce</em>, <em>Cat Country</em> and <em>Mr Ma</em> and <em>Son--</em>into plays.</p>
<p>He will premiere his new play, in which he adapts six of Lao She's short stories for the stage, in May.</p>
<p>Contact the writer at <a href="mailto:chennan@chinadaily.com.cn">chennan@chinadaily.com.cn</a></p>
<p><em><strong>If you go</strong></em></p>
<p>7:30 pm, Jan 2. Great Hall of the People, west of Tian'anmen Square, Xicheng district, Beijing. 400-610-3721.</p>
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by <a href="mailto:denton.2@osu.edu">denton.2@osu.edu</a> on December 29, 2017 </div>
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