《Issue 40》
After filming the movie "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom", the crew went to Wuhan once to perform, once to Sichuan to perform, and maybe once or twice in Shanghai. Of the ten scenes in "Outsmart", Yang Zirong occupied six or seven, and the middle scenes were played consecutively, leaving no time to breathe. Once, during the break during the sixth scene of "Tiger Hunting Up the Mountain", I lay down next to the side curtain and vomited! I didn't understand it at the time. In fact, my heart couldn't bear it. I vomited there, and the workers' propaganda team said I was pretending to be a dead dog.
In 1972 in Shanghai, one day I was playing table tennis and bent down to pick up the ball. The pain suddenly made me unable to straighten my back. An Guanglin, the traumatologist on the set, said that my waist had slipped and my muscles were damaged, so he put me in bed to recuperate after applying medicine. It just so happened that at this juncture, I was asked to perform "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom" again. After Nagyun explained his condition to the crew leaders, they and Dr. An came to see me at home and told me that this performance for the Albanian military delegation was a political mission assigned by the superiors and that it had to be performed. This is really unreasonable. How can I act like this? The crew leader told Dr. An that he must be treated and the performance guaranteed. After they left, I was so angry that I couldn't act even if I was shot. Dr. An thought for a while and said he could let me act. I thought he was joking. He couldn't even stand up. How could he play the role of Yang Zirong who danced and danced. Dr. An said that he would give me massage and medication for the next two days and then ask me to arrive at the theater two hours early during the performance and he would think of a solution. Even so, how do I know whether I am sure or not? It worries me to death.
On the day of the performance, Nan Yun and Xu Ming helped me go to the Xujiahui Small Theater on Hengshan Road three hours in advance. When I got backstage, I lay on the bed prepared by Dr. An. He pressed my waist and back, twisted my arms and pulled my legs. , and pressed his heavy body on my waist. I screamed, and he was sweating profusely. This was not treating a disease, it was just like killing a pig. He tossed and turned for two hours. After he finished, he asked me to come down and give it a try. I couldn't believe that I could move freely like a normal person. I don't have any pain at all and can perform. I'm very happy. He said don't be happy yet, there will be no problem during the performance, but it will be more painful after the performance. I said don't be ridiculous. It's all healed now, so why does it still hurt in the future?
I never felt any discomfort during the performance. After the play was over, I sat in the dressing room catching my breath. The workers' propaganda team came in and said, isn't it great? Dr. An said that I wouldn't be allowed to have any activities for a month. I just wanted to stand up, but not only could I not stand up, but it became more and more painful. The health doctor wanted to give me an analgesic injection, but Dr. An said it was useless. Before the performance, he used massage techniques to numb all the nerves in my body to achieve an analgesic effect. I seemed to lose consciousness at the time. Excessive exercise will aggravate the injury. This is a rescue. ,no way. I have to admire Dr. An's family medical skills, but who knew that we actors have to endure such hardships.
From 1971 to 1972, when "Pan Rock Bay" was being arranged, I was asked to do every creation, revision and rehearsal. At that time, Li Chongshan and I played Lu Changhai. Li Chongshan has been on the set for a long time, during the filming of "Taking Tiger Mountain by Wisdom" in 1970. We really don’t have a B team. After five years of playing this show, whether it was 360 or 460 shows a year, it was always just Shen Jinbo and I, without a single B role. Later, I was too tired, so I transferred Zhang Xuejin and Li Chongshan. At that time, Mr. Yu was tormenting me. Once during a rehearsal, it was really annoying! He jumped down from a two-meter-high platform. Chongshan was in trouble. He had practiced kung fu, but he had never practiced this in drama school. He didn't dare to say it, but I dared to say it! I said, Lao Yu, I can't do this move Chongshan. Lao Yu interfaced and said, "What about you?" He asked me to show it to him. I thought to myself that this was quite irritating, and I really jumped out of my mind, because I have been doing somersaults and stuff since I was a child. Lao Yu sat there and stopped ringing for a long time.
(Tong Xiangling's version of "Panshi Bay")
Lu Changhai is also the number one character in "Panshi Bay", but his role is better than that in "Take the Tiger Mountain by Wisdom". Li Chongshan was always worried. He had many difficulties that he dared not talk about. I said Chongshan, you can rest assured that this play is absolutely yours, and it absolutely cannot be mine. I will change it for you now, so don't worry about it. Lao Yu was sometimes very unreasonable. In "Panshi Bay" there was a diving action. There was a bounce board on the stage. He asked Li Chongshan to run up and bounce it, and then make a straight up and down diving action. In the diving pool, you can jump up and down, and there is water below.But how could the wooden floor on the stage go straight up and down? Li Chongshan was worried and asked me, brother, what do you think of doing this? I thought about it for a long time and told him that you don’t have to worry about it. I will handle this matter and go up by myself. . I remember it was at the Hengshan Road International Chapel. I stepped on the springboard and found that it didn't work. I could curl my legs up, but I had no time to turn around when I got up on the springboard! No matter how I turned over, I couldn't do it. So I went straight up and down. I was admitted to Huashan Hospital for two months.
(Stills from Li Chongshan's version of "Panshi Bay")
When the Fourth National People's Congress was in session, one day all the representatives went to see "Battle on the Plains", and I took leave to go home to visit my mother. Before leaving, leave your neighbor’s phone number with the conference team for easy contact. I had just had dinner with my mother when suddenly my neighbor asked me to answer the phone and the security force sent a car to pick me up. It turned out that the chief was at the theater and picked me up to watch the show with her. A car took me to the theater and someone took me to the chief executive's lounge. There were several old leaders present. Haoliang came out of the back room to introduce me first. After a while, the leader also came out of the back room and said that my voice was broken and there were nodules on my vocal cords, so I could no longer sing. I said I never had this history. She still said she should stop singing and do something else. Then she asked me to watch "Plain War" with her. When she went out, she left first, and Haoliang also left. That feeling is so uncomfortable! What’s even more uncomfortable is that when I go to the theater, I have no intention of watching the theater at all, because now I am watching other people acting, and I won’t be able to be an actor when I go back.
(Stills of "Plain War")
After the show, I took the Shanghai delegation's car back together. Everyone in the car thought I was very beautiful. How could they know that this was such a heartbreaking show that was difficult to watch? Not long after I returned to Shanghai, Comrade Xu from the office of the Peking Opera Theater asked me to take a call from Beijing. A leader of the cultural department conveyed the director’s three instructions to me: first, take care of your body, second, stop acting, and third, do something more. Technical guidance work. This is what I expected. In this way, starting from January 1975, according to the order of the director, I left the stage and the crew. I no longer had to practice kungfu and raise my voice. I just did it when I had something to do. It was just running here and there. In short, it was just some errands. It was okay. Just walking around is a rare leisure time.
(to be continued)
