Jiang Wanyue.
At the end of last month, the Fujian opera "Crossing the Cliff", which was performed at the 18th China Theatre Festival, is a new historical drama with distinctive local drama characteristics. The play has an ingenious structure, plot twists and turns, many reversals, and unexpected, not only the story is good-looking, but also has a profound connotation and idea.
The story takes place in the Yuan Dynasty, when the Min River flooded and the prison in Lejiang County, Fuzhou Prefecture, was flooded. Du Yuanping, a scholar who had just been hired as a prison officer, was ordered to transfer the prisoners, but on the way he encountered a girl who fell into the water, no one dared to save him, and the prisoner Liu Qingshan volunteered to go into the water to rescue the person, but he sank and disappeared. The county commander Ma Decheng was angry with Du Yuanping because of this. Du Yuanping suggested that the activity of "Ten Thousand People Sacrifice to the River" should be used to commend the good deeds of prisoners for their righteousness and courage, and at the same time, it can also highlight that Ma Decheng is a good official who governs the county well. Sure enough, sacrificing Jiang made Ma Decheng commended. The emperor personally issued a holy decree, and Ma Decheng was promoted from the seventh grade to the fourth grade.
Unexpectedly, ** Shan came back alive and took the initiative to ask for a renewal of his sentence. Ma Decheng was terrified, if the matter was revealed, he would be guilty of defrauding the king. So he came up with a poisonous plan - pretending to release Liu Qingshan, ordering Du Yuanping to escort him home, and pushing Liu off the cliff on the way, creating the result of "accidental fall off the cliff". Du Yuanping wanted to kill himself on the way over the cliff, but he accidentally fell off the cliff and was rescued by Liu Qingshan. After Du Yuanping was rescued, he was ashamed and told the truth. In order to save Du Yuanping from punishment, Liu Qingshan decided to go away incognito.
After the first draft of screenwriter Huang Xiubao was completed, he listened to the opinions of all parties, revised the script many times, and polished it into a relatively complete version like this. "Crossing the Cliff" focuses on presenting the inner entanglements and struggles of the characters: the protagonist Du Yuanping is a scholar who studies hard in the cold window, he has the temperament of a literati, and he can also demand himself with the moral standards of courtesy, righteousness and shame, but when facing the test of promotion and life and death, the balance of inner justice and life and death will also be unbalanced. The screenwriter portrayed the complex psychology of this character vividly and accurately, and became a unique and typical artistic image - his life experiences and conscience awakening have universal practical significance.
Liu Qingshan is designed as a kind-hearted and sympathetic Langzhong, a symbol of purity, integrity, beauty, and sunshine, which forms a sharp contrast with Du Yuanping and Ma Decheng. The county magistrate Ma Decheng is a shameless person who is confused, unwilling to contribute, and just wants to reap benefits. When he heard that Liu Qingshan had escaped, he immediately put the blame on Du YuanpingWhen Du Yuanping suggested that the activity of "Ten Thousand People Sacrifice to the River" be reported to the state capital, he immediately understood that this was the best time for him to gain fame;He was afraid that the crime of bullying the monarch would be exposed, so he immediately came up with a poisonous plan to push Liu Qingshan off the cliff.
The highlight of the play is the third fold "Over the Cliff". Director Xu Chunlan adheres to the aesthetic spirit of traditional Chinese opera, and uses freehand and virtual pursuits and expression methods flexibly and freely. On the stage, the so-called cliff is nothing more than a platform two or three feet high and four or five meters long, on which the two actors stumble and pounce, performing beautiful programs and difficult skills, but the audience can feel the artistic conception of the steep mountain road and steep mountain peaks.
In addition to being formal and ornamental, this scene is more emotionally shocking. Du Yuanping wanted to push Liu Qingshan off the cliff twice, and when he finally decided to kill him, he fell off the cliff and was pulled back by Liu Qingshan with all his might. After he realized it, he was ashamed and sang: "People have two feet, one foot of the devil comes to the other foot of God, which foot to take, the gods and demons fight each other, to talk about winning and losing, and ask people's hearts." The choreographer puts human nature in the danger of life and death, allowing the characters to struggle on the edge of good and evil, showing the fierceness of inner conflicts, and revealing the variety and complexity of human nature. In the end, Du Yuanping's conscience awakened and realized self-redemption.
Du Yuanping's character sings and does both, not only has a large number of affectionate singing segments, but also difficult and complex martial arts skills, and his heart has many ups and downs, turmoil, entanglement, struggle, and repeated changes in mood. The young actor Yang Shuai, who plays Du Yuanping, has a delicate and vivid performance, with clear layers and reasonableness.