After two years of separation, we finally meet again. The Wuzhen Theater Festival will bloom again from October 15th to October 24th. The theme of this year’s theater festival is "Mao" - which means rich rather than complicated, wild and lush.

After two years of separation, we finally meet again. Wuzhen Theater Festival will bloom again from October 15th to October 24th. The theme of this year’s theater festival is "Mao" - richness instead of complexity, wild and lush. meaning. Just now, the drama performances and various activities of this drama festival were released, and the gong will be sounded at 10 o'clock on September 16th. At the press conference, Wuzhen Theater Festival founders Chen Xianghong, Huang Lei, Lai Shengchuan, and Meng Jinghui jointly announced the list of specially invited plays. 66 performances of 24 plays from all over the country will be performed in Wuzhen. The 12-seat theater shines brightly. This year's artistic director Meng Jinghui adheres to the previous selection criteria of excellent, unique and professional works, focuses his attention on Chinese drama, and invites many high-quality and representative artistic works to fully demonstrate the inclusive and diverse overall appearance of Chinese drama.

The specially invited plays of this Wuzhen Theater Festival are divided into seven sections. Many drama masters are invited to perform on the stage together with Mesozoic and new generation dramatists. They include many Chinese and foreign classic reinterpretations, classical rebirths, as well as new original scripts and unique personalities. Publicity. The cross-border dance and campus observation sections are equally exciting, constantly expanding the vision and boundaries of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, and showing the rich connotation and multiple dimensions of Chinese drama.

Entering a harvest year, the Wuzhen Theater Festival will usher in the return of award-winning dramatists from previous youth competitions in its eighth year, and start anew with growth. Six dramatists Liu Xiaoye, Zhao Xiaosu, Wu Bi, Ding Yiteng, Liu Xiaoyi, and Liu Tianqi from iQiyi's " Drama New Life" program will return to Wuzhen to perform word-of-mouth dramas. Two female young dramatists - Yang Zhefen, winner of the 2017 Youth Competition "Town Award", and He Qi, shortlisted for the 2018 Youth Competition, will also present their brand-new stage works. It is worth mentioning that a total of 11 female dramatists’ works have appeared in the specially invited repertoire unit, which is close to half of the total number of specially invited repertoires. Female dramatists continue to speak out, demonstrating the rich and colorful real-life power of drama.

's newly opened Lake Theater will screen many classic works from the world's six major theater festivals including Edinburgh Art Festival, Berlin Theater Festival, and Avignon Theater Festival.

’s new dramatic power has also grown into the inexhaustible original vitality of the Wuzhen Theater Festival. This year's youth competition, with the theme of "Tree, Bread, Past", received more than 500 entries, setting a new high in the past. After fierce competition, a total of 18 works finally stood out and are waiting to be released.

[Introduction to some plays]

" Was Like This " [Performance Workshop] Upper Theater Director: Lai Shengchuan

Well-known Chinese dramatist , Lai Shengchuan, founder and permanent chairman of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, following "Yao Yao" who came to Wuzhen in 2019 After "Dong Eight", he brought his masterpiece "The Way We Were" to the Wuzhen Theater Festival. After ten years of gestation, the play is performed by the famous actor Hao Lei , the famous singer Zhang Jie , and all the actors of the Shanghai Theater Company. It shows a dramatist and even an art philosopher Lai Shengchuan, using an epic and magnificent structure to deal with the drama. Thoughts on the origins of life, time and destiny. This play will further touch on the proposition that "life is just a projection of reality", using a double annular theater to record a broader and more inclusive life experience. Dream after dream, shadow after shadow. I heard it like this. In the dream I heard, it was like this.

"Heart" " Drama New Life" Director: Liu Xiaoye

"Heart" directed by China's outstanding drama actor Liu Xiaoye and performed by Liu Xiaoyi, Ding Yiteng, Zhao Xiaosu and Wu Bi will be staged in Wuzhen again. The play is adapted from the novella "Heart of a Dog" by Russian writer Bulgakov, with an absurd and humorous style; it uses a more impactful stage format to break the distance between the theater and the audience. The play has witty lines and bold style, and it is a sharp satire and reflection on the human heart under the continuous development of science.

"About Planet 23" "Drama New Life" Director: Liu Xiaoye

Directed by puppet master Liu Xiaoyi, together with Liu Xiaoye, Wu Bi, Ding Yiteng, Zhao Xiaosu and Liu Tianqi, the finale of "Drama New Life"—— "About Planet 23". In the form of a puppet show, the play presents the lonely process of a child from his unbridled childhood to growing up and losing his innocence. The play uses extremely simple props to create a bizarre Planet No. 23, with a warm and romantic style, delicate and simple, and thought-provoking.

"Reflection" "New Life in Drama" Director: Ding Yiteng

"Reflection" directed by China's emerging director Ding Yiteng and co-produced with Liu Xiaoye, Zhao Xiaosu, Wu Bi and Liu Tianqi will return to the water at this year's Wuzhen Theater Festival theater. The play is adapted from Wilde 's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which expresses the confrontation between good and evil in human nature in a highly formal way. The unique environmental atmosphere of the water theater perfectly blends with the theme of the drama, bringing an immersive and wonderful performance to the audience.

"Brazil" "New Life in Drama" Director: Liu Tianqi

Written and directed by Liu Tianqi, the emerging Chinese director who won the Best Drama Award in the "Youth Competition" section of the 7th Wuzhen Theater Festival, co-starring with Wu Bi and Liu Xiaoyi "Brazil" tells the relationship and emotions between robots and humans in the future world in an extremely delicate way. "Brazil" expresses people's desire for love and emotion. It is natural, simple, delicate and deeply rooted in people's hearts.

"The Story of the Chicken Farm" "Drama New Life" Director: Liu Xiaoye, Wu Bi, Zhao Xiaosu, Liu Xiaoyi, Ding Yiteng, Liu Tianqi

"The Chicken Farm" was co-created and performed by all the dramatists of "Drama New Life" "Story", as the opening play of "Drama New Life", has received widespread praise. This time, six dramatists Liu Xiaoye, Zhao Xiaosu, Liu Xiaoyi, Wu Bi, Ding Yiteng, and Liu Tianqi will once again perform "The Story of the Chicken Farm", telling the story of the chicken Xiaolan who bravely moves forward and is not afraid of hardships to see the sea. The play is adapted from "Carmela's Story" and expresses the persistence and pursuit of dreams.

"Red and Black" (World Premiere) Meng Jinghui Theater Studio Director: Meng Jinghui

Meng Jinghui, founder and artistic director of Wuzhen Theater Festival, often creates miracles in the theater world with his spicy, humorous and critical drama skills, creating a contemporary A new look at drama. Adapted by Meng Jinghui, the play "Red and Black" of the same name by the famous French writer Stendhal, starring Mei Ting and Zhang Yicheng, will premiere at this Wuzhen Theater Festival. Julien, a French young man who is extraordinarily handsome and intelligent, comes from a humble background but is ambitious. With the entanglement of two women, his unruly soul is tortured by clumsy, crazy and hypocritical love. "Red and Black" uses the humorous, sarcastic, and romantic narrative method of "Montesque pleasure" to fully display Julien's self-esteem and inferiority, ambition and temptation, ascent and fall, and interpret the intertwined and complex love and human nature step by step. Vivid red and black.

"Sunrise" Shanghai Zixing Cultural Exchange Co., Ltd. Director: Jin Xing

"Sunrise" is the masterpiece of Cao Yu, the most outstanding drama master in the history of modern Chinese literature. The drama version has been premiered since 1937. Today, after multiple versions of rehearsals, it has become an eternal classic on the theater stage. The stage play "Sunrise" coming to the Wuzhen Theater Festival this time is the masterpiece of the famous Chinese modern dancer Jin Xing's return to the stage. She served as a stage play director for the first time and played two roles in the play. This play intentionally weakens the primary and secondary relationship between the characters, and presents various primary and secondary characters in the entire work in the form of group portraits. Through the rich physical expressions of modern dance , the emotions of the characters are externalized and extended. Using the stage as a mirror, "Sunrise" will express the various aspects of social life in the language and aesthetics of the body, reinterpreting this classic work by Master Cao Yu.

"Tudogelo and Spike" (premiere) Zhe Art Studio Director: Yang Zhefen

Yang Zhefen, a young dramatist who graduated from the youth competition unit of the Wuzhen Theater Festival, will premiere his new work "Tudogero" "Law and Spike" returns to Wuzhen Theater Festival. In 2017, Yang Zhefen's drama "The Girl Who Ate the Flower" won the Best Drama Award in the Youth Competition of the 5th Wuzhen Theater Festival. "Tudogelo and Spike" is her new, more mature work. It tells the living conditions of two different creatures, Tudogelo and Spike, and explores the era of living alone while questioning the repetitive and monotonous life every day. Subtle changes in relationships between people. Living alone has become the norm for modern people, and space has become an extension of the body. What else can we think about others and the nature of existence?

"Hudec" Bi'an Theater Director: Zhou Ke

Director Zhou Ke and Bi'an Theater will bring a new work "Hudec" to this Wuzhen Theater Festival. The play uses the questions and answers between the Hungarian architect Hudec and the American immigration officer as clues to tell the architect's legendary and wandering life. What kind of life is full of "inaccuracies" behind the "exact" buildings? How did Hudec integrate his memory and nostalgia for "home" into his life and career? In turbulent times, building inner peace, beauty, and grace becomes even more important. When we are far away from our homeland and feel at home everywhere, each of us may be another Hudec looking for accuracy in an uncertain world.

" Wilderness " Shanghai Drama Art Center Director: He Nian

html Post-180s drama director He Nian is considered to be the youngest and most prolific drama director in Shanghai. He will bring the most outstanding drama master in the history of modern Chinese literature, Mr. Cao Yu The classic masterpiece "The Wilderness" appeared at this year's Wuzhen Theater Festival. In the wilderness, when the shackled Qiu Hu jumps out of the prison car, the story will inevitably happen. Treating the classics as a prism, each audience member entering the theater is encouraged to appreciate it from different angles. The re-interpretation of "The Wilderness" breaks the time and space sequence of the original script, adopts a bold attempt at non-linear narrative, and uses "light" and "shadow" combined with the rich expressive power of dance to stage a play of love and hate, love and hatred intertwined for the audience. tragedy.

"Five Tones" Xie Xin Dance Theater Artistic Director: Xie Xin

Young dancer Xie Xin and seven dancers from Xie Xin Dance Theater presented the first new five youth works "Pentave Tones". Seven dancers will perform five works in combination with each other or individually: "23:23", "Flow", "13 Frames. / 13 Frames", "Yi Ri" and "When the Sun Rises". The five works are blended but not identical, forming five voices in the interweaving of conflicts or continuations. Each work has its own reflection on life and discussion of the self-body. "Five Tones" is mixed with the rich creativity and energy of young dancers, full of youthful texture, using the body as a medium to express their thinking and understanding of the world in front of them.

"Hamlet" (Tibetan version) Shanghai Theater Academy Director: Pu Cunxin

Shakespeare The classic work "Hamlet" will come to the Wuzhen Theater Festival with a new look. The Tibetan version of "Hamlet" is the graduation drama of the first Tibetan undergraduate graduating class of the Performance Department of Shanghai Theater Academy. It is directed by Pu Cunxin, a famous Chinese performing artist and a member of the Wuzhen Theater Festival Art Committee. The Tibetan version of "Hamlet" is Pu Cunxin's first directorial work. The former "Hamlet" will complete the transition from self-acting to self-directing in this play. When the melancholy prince Hamlet comes to the snowy plateau , what questions will he ask about survival? The performances of newcomers in Tibetan drama will turn the stories of their hometown into the scenery of their hometown.

"The False Maid" Central Academy of Drama Experimental Theater Director: Christopher · Foutrier (France)

"The False Maid" is a classic work by the famous French classical comedy master Marivaux in the 18th century. This Wuzhen version The performance team comes from the Central Academy of Drama, and is performed by a group of young teachers. Malivo is often regarded as the Chekhov of the 18th century. His plays are light, cheerful and philosophical, and are observations and reflections on the times in which he lived. This version of "The False Maid" adds detective elements to the clever plot, taking Malivo's themes and comedy characteristics to the extreme: disguise, control, desire, betrayal, illusion and social issues are blended in the same play, Persona The improvisation and liveliness of comedy performances give energy and freedom to stage performances.

"Secret Love in Peach Blossom Spring" (opera cross-border version) Shanghai Theater Academy Director: Lu Qiuyan

"Secret Love in Peach Blossom Spring" is the classic work of director Lai Shengchuan. This time, the Shanghai Theater Academy will reinterpret this classic in the form of a cross-border opera. It will use "Beijing-Vietnam co-performance, opera and dialogue" as the adaptation concept of the cross-border opera version of "Secret Love in the Peach Blossom Spring", and use Peking Opera to perform the opera. For the "Peach Blossom Land" part of the Chinese opera, Yue Opera is used to interpret the "secret love" part of the opera within the opera, and the drama is used to interpret the "external aspect of the opera within the opera" part. Through the comparison, collision and intersection of the two major operas, Peking Opera and Yue Opera, the drama of the original drama shines with new brilliance, and the rich aesthetic value and philosophical connotation of the original drama are also newly sublimated in the performance of the opera.

Photos are provided by Wuzhen Theater Festival

Author: Tong Weijing

Editor: Xu Luming