Stills from the drama "Red Sorghum Family" taken by Tu Jingqing.
*"Red Sorghum Family" has been adapted into dance dramas, Peking Opera, Ping Opera, Henan Opera, Jin Opera and other stage drama genres performed at home and abroad, but due to the limited time of stage performances, the content of the adaptation is mostly "Red Sorghum" and "Sorghum Wine", and the content of the other 3 articles in "Red Sorghum Family" is rarely involved. With the joint efforts of Jiangsu Grand Theater and director Mou Sen, the drama "Red Sorghum Family" has completely presented the content for the first time. From December 2nd to 3rd, the drama "Red Sorghum Family" adapted from the famous writer and vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association Mo Yan of the same name** was performed at the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center. After the performance, an expert seminar on the drama "Red Sorghum Family" co-sponsored by the "Literature and Art Daily" and the Jiangsu Grand Theatre was held, Mo Yan said at the seminar.
In 1986, Mo Yan's novella "Red Sorghum" was published in the magazine "People's Literature", which caused a huge response. Subsequently, he created and published a series of novellas**"Sorghum Wine", "Sorghum Funeral", "Dog Road" and "Strange Death", which together form Mo Yan's first novel** "Red Sorghum Family". Over the past 30 years, this fiery "sorghum land" has long spread out of the realm of literature, taking root and blossoming in different art forms. It is the first time that "Red Sorghum Family" has been adapted into a drama performance. "Compared with last year's premiere in Jiangsu, this performance in Beijing has changed and improved a lot, and the overall performance is smoother and more closely connected, thanks to the dedication and efforts of all the cast and crew in front of and behind the scenes. Mo Yan said.
At the seminar, Qiu Huadong, Deng Kai, Ye Biaorong, heads of relevant units, writers and critics Liu Zhenyun, Ge Fei, Li Er, Ouyang Yibing, Chen Xiaoming, Zhang Qinghua, He Shaojun, Liu Qiong, Song Baozhen, as well as the director of the play Mou Sen, producer Li Dong, producer Liao Yi, etc., attended the event. Experts unanimously agreed that on the basis of accurately grasping the spirit of the original work, the main creative team of the play used a dramatic language full of imagery and symbolism to better convey the spirit of fearless and courageous resistance of "red sorghum", and realized the beneficial exploration of the first dramatic adaptation. The seminar was presided over by Yue Wen, deputy editor-in-chief of Literature and Art Daily.
As a national art ** large-scale stage play and work creation funding project in 2023, the version of "Red Sorghum Family" performed in Beijing this time is carefully polished, optimized and upgraded on the basis of the original, and the whole drama is more full. "The drama "Red Sorghum Family" has been performed 41 times, from the first show to the present, the main creative team has continued to absorb the direct feedback from the audience, after several rounds of polishing and adjustment, and now the appearance presented on the stage has changed greatly from the premiere. Maybe two hours may not be enough for ordinary readers to read a long story**, but it can allow them to see the whole story in the theater with three-dimensional images being fully interpreted, and deeply feel the charm of literature and art. Mou Sen explained.
Qiu Huadong, a member of the party group and vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, said that "Red Sorghum Family" is a masterpiece in the history of contemporary literature in China. "Red sorghum" has also become a key cultural keyword in Gaomi. From literary classics to stage masterpieces, Jiangsu Grand Theatre adheres to the people-centered creative orientation, explores the excellent spiritual core of literary classics, presents the original classics on the drama stage, shapes the flesh-and-blood people's epic, and better interprets the endless and indomitable spirit of "red sorghum" in the original work. The theatrical adaptation of literary works has also brought new vitality to the stage, injected new momentum, and activated the performance market.
Deng Kai, secretary of the Chinese Writers Association, said that the performance of the drama "Red Sorghum Family" in Jinjing not only allowed literary readers and drama audiences to feel the enduring vitality of Mo Yan's literary classics, but also led everyone to appreciate the endless and indomitable spirit of "red sorghum" in the original work. The play condenses the hard work of many outstanding literary and artistic workers, reflects the temperament and character of the writer Mo Yan's long story, and depicts the portrait of the people who stand up to the sky and struggle unyieldingly on the land of China in multiple dimensions and directions, and writes an endless people's epic. Deng Kai said.
Liu Zhenyun, a famous writer and professor at Renmin University of Chinese, believes that similar to the drama "One Sentence Top 10,000 Sentences", the stage installation of the drama "Red Sorghum Family" is very simple, but the content is very rich. The difference between the two is that the story of the drama "Red Sorghum Family", including the progress of the characters, is quite fast, while the drama "One Sentence Top 10,000 Sentences" is relatively flat. Ge Fei, a famous writer and professor at Tsinghua University, believes that the framework of this drama is good, the characters created are flesh and blood, the plot is complete, and the narrative rhythm is also very compact. In particular, creatively re-segmenting, mosaic and splicing the characters and storylines in the original work can also keep the narrative basically smooth, which shows the director's skill.
In the opinion of the famous playwright and drama critic Ouyang Yibing, the adaptation of the drama "Red Sorghum Family" is faithful to the original work, especially the key to Mo Yan** being remembered, appreciated, and constantly excavated by people, that is, using dramatic thinking to reflect the unconventional, and combining narrative and drama very cleverly. Liu Qiong, deputy director of the Literature and Art Department of "People**", believes that the drama refines the five texts in "Red Sorghum Family" together, and revolves around the family story of "I", on the one hand, the relationship between people and land, people and desires, and on the other hand, the relationship between people and animals, people and others, etc., is connected layer by layer in the form of time narrative, which is very successful.
The curtain of the drama "Red Sorghum Family" opened, and "my grandfather" Yu Zhanao picked up the ground on all fours, and the brothers lifted the coffin with their backs ......Then a mouthful of blood gushed out, and the blood mist turned red into "sorghum". "At the beginning of the play, the coffin was lifted, which is so powerful!Chen Xiaoming, a professor at Peking University, believes that the "starting point" of the drama "Red Sorghum Family" is very high, and this sense of power is in line with the unique background of the times when "Red Sorghum" was published in 1986, such as "the spirit of women's volleyball" and "men should be self-reliant".
In fact, it is difficult to fully present the richness of Mo Yan ** in the form of drama in such a short period of time, which is too difficult for the main creator of the drama. Zhang Qinghua, a professor at Beijing Normal University, believes that on the whole, this is a play with a high degree of exploration and experimental value, and at the same time it is faithful to the original work, embodying a high literary spirit and dramatic spirit, or integrating the core of literature and the spirit of drama. He Shaojun, a professor at Shenyang Normal University, believes that a lot of the success of this drama is due to the fact that the main creative team has a very thorough understanding of the original work, and on this basis, it has been successfully interpreted. Li Er, a famous writer and professor at Peking University, said frankly that the drama "Red Sorghum Family" extracted the storytelling of Mo Yan**, but how to turn Mo Yan**'s rhetoric into the rhetoric of the stage needs to be further explored.
The drama adaptation of "Red Sorghum Family" is a success, and the land, sorghum, people, fate, and epic are organically integrated in this drama. Song Baozhen, director of the Drama Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts, believes that whether it is Mo Yan's original work or the drama adapted by Mou Sen, it is based on the ontological meaning of life, taking "Gaomi Northeast Township" as a microcosm of Chinese society, showing the tenacity and tenacity of the wild life force.
Ye Biaorong, general manager of Jiangsu Cultural Investment Group, said that Jiangsu Cultural Investment Group and Jiangsu Grand Theatre will, as always, fully support literary works on the stage in the future, which is the duty and responsibility of state-owned cultural enterprises.
China Art Daily reporter Zhao Zhiwei).