China's plays in the forties.

In the 1940s, Zhang Ruifang was already a well-known drama actor in Chongqing, and he was also called "Four Famous Dances" with Bai Yang, Xiu Wenshu and Qin Yi. Compared with the role of Li Shuangshuang on the screen after liberation, Zhang Ruifang likes Su Fang in Peking Man, Ruiyu in Home and Chanjuan in Qu Yuan best. During the interview, Zhang Ruifang, who was sitting in front of the reporter, was 89 years old, but he could still say in a very humorous tone: "At that time, I was Qingyi, and after liberation, I became the Beijing Opera Blues." There is a Chinese painting hanging on the wall of Zhang Ruifang's house. She is Chanjuan in the painting.

The response caused by Qu Yuan is enormous. Zhang Ruifang described it like this in his memoirs: "1On April 3rd, 942, Qu Yuan was grandly staged in Guotai Grand Theatre. ..... In the following 15 days, many people slept in front of the theater with quilts, waiting to sell tickets the next day, and some even came from Chengdu and Guiyang to see the play. The whole mountain city is boiling. No matter in the classroom, on the road, or beside the ferry and station, you can always hear' explosion! .....' roar. This round of the first round of performance, the number of viewers reached 300 thousand. "

Qu Yuan's performance is the climax of the famous "Fog Season Performance" in China's drama history. No matter from which aspect, "Fog Season Performance" is the golden age in the history of China's drama.

The so-called "fog season" was originally a unique climate phenomenon in Chongqing. From June 65438 to May of the following year, Chongqing was shrouded in fog. During the Anti-Japanese War, this special geography became a natural air defense network, and Japanese air strikes decreased. Zhang Ruifang recalled that when he first arrived in Chongqing, people didn't know the law of Japanese air strikes, and performances were often interrupted. Jiao Huang watched the play, and the name was indeed "Country First". Once the performance of "Country First" was attacked by air, the dressing room of the theater was locked, and the actors had to run to the counter of the theater to remove makeup with the cream on the snacks. Later, the law of "fog season" was discovered, during which a large-scale grand performance was held.

From June 194 1 to May 1942, it was the first "Fog Season Performance" in Chongqing. Since then, by 1945, Chongqing's "fog season performance" has lasted four times between Japanese bombing. Since the National Government moved its capital to Chongqing after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Chongqing has gathered some famous domestic drama groups and celebrities in the art performance field. In Zhang Ruifang's memory, there were more than 50 drama clubs in Chongqing at that time, including Roar Drama Club, Shanghai Shadow Play Troupe, Rural Anti-Japanese War Troupe, CLP Theatre, Shanghai Amateur Dramatists Association, Central Youth Drama Club, China Art Drama Club, Central Experimental Drama Club and Fudan Drama Club. Famous playwrights include Guo Moruo, Yang Hansheng, Tian Han, Hong Shen, Lao She, Cao Yu, Chen and Wu Zuguang, famous directors include Jiao Juyin, Shi Dongshan, Chen Liting, Zheng, Sun, and famous actors include Zhao Dan, Bai Yang, Shu Xiuwen, Jinshan and Tao Jin. During the foggy season, more than 100 Chinese and foreign plays are staged in Chongqing in turn, without repetition. Chongqing was also a productive place for playwrights at that time. For example, during the Anti-Japanese War, Guo Moruo wrote six historical dramas, such as Flowers of Tang Di, Qu Yuan, Tiger Elephant, Gao Jianli, Peacock Gallbladder and Southern Crown Grass. Yang Hansheng wrote three historical plays, Death of Li Xiucheng, Spring and Autumn Period of the Kingdom of Heaven, and Hero of the Grass. "Big performance in foggy season" also directly promoted the theoretical development of drama industry at that time. Shi Dongshan, the director at that time, once wrote an academic paper "Comparison of stanislavski's and vakhtangov's Dramatic Methods", suggesting that the "consciousness" and "subconscious" of actors in the creative process are dialectical and unified, and should not be neglected. A year later, Smith's My Artistic Life and the Cultivation of Actors was published in full translation. For a time, these two books became popular books in the drama world.

The stage is also a battlefield

From the perspective of subject matter, most of the dramas of Fog Season Show and even the whole anti-Japanese war drama are anti-Japanese and national salvation, and there are also many dramas that expose the darkness and corruption in Kuomintang-controlled areas. In fact, the repertoire of the "Fog Season Show" is "Left, Middle and Right", and some troupes also perform Shakespeare's plays. But what is most popular with the audience is indeed to carry forward patriotism, love the nation and resist Japan and save the country.

In the interview, Zhang Ruifang seemed dismissive of the question of "the situation of other troupes and repertoires besides the anti-Japanese national salvation at that time": "At that time, the Japanese came to the door, and the masses loved to watch anti-Japanese national salvation dramas."

Not to mention the audience, the actors themselves have blood and tears. Zhang Ruifang's father was a general of the Northern Expedition, and he was forced to shoot himself in the 1928 Xuzhou Campaign. Zhang Ruifang's younger brother went to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region after the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, where he died. Zhang Ruifang said that when she received the news of her brother's death, she was preparing to play in the dressing room backstage. In that scene, all her feelings for her brother were integrated into the play.

The roles played by Zhang Ruifang at that time, such as Su Fang, Ruiyu and Chanjuan, were all unsatisfactory: Su Fang left, Ruiyu died and Chanjuan committed suicide. Zhang Ruifang said that she remembered asking Guo Moruo why ChanJuan had to die. Guo Moruo said that the more beautiful things are, the more their destruction will arouse the audience's sense of tragedy and make them feel disgusted with the dark system. Qu Yuan is a historical drama, but all the creators who participated in the performance understand that Qu Yuan is a parody of the present. Guo Moruo himself said: "I want to borrow the bones of the ancients and brag about some new life." After Qu Yuan's first performance, Pan Gongzhan, then chairman of the Central Book and Magazine Review Committee, cursed the performers: "What is explosion, what is darkness! This is treason. Our leader is not Chu Huaiwang! " 1June, 942, Qu Yuan was banned in Chongqing, and the troupe moved to Beibei. For Ruiyu's death, Cao Yu explained: "From marriage to death, the whole mission of feudal marriage was completed."

Zhou Enlai is an indispensable role in large-scale performances in foggy season. In Chongqing, He Deng is a frequent visitor to various theatrical performances. Zhang Ruifang said that at that time, after the performance, Mr. and Mrs. Zhou Enlai often invited actors to dinner.

Sometimes Zhou Enlai is directly involved in script writing. In Flowers of Tang Di, Zhou Enlai finally decides the action and lines of picking peach blossoms for farewell in Spring Valley. 19411215. Zhou Enlai wrote to Guo Moruo again and made comments on some words in Tang Dihua. The letter said: "Brother Mo: I have read the script, and my thoughts on the text are on another piece of paper. Please think about it. " This "thinking word" includes two to five behaviors and is more than 2,000 words long.

194210 June 17, Xia Yan's Fascist Bacteria premiered at Guotai Theatre. This is the first script written by Xia Yan after he arrived in Chongqing. Zhou Enlai has seen the play three times. Zhou Enlai pointed out that in the "fog season performance", the Progressive Theater and the Kuomintang authorities not only confronted each other blindly, but also made concessions when necessary according to the principles of rationality, advantage and restraint. For example, the children's group performed "Bald King", and the Kuomintang thought it was an allusion to Chiang Kai-shek. The place name of Shiqing Palace in the play was also suspected to refer to Chiang Kai-shek's residence, Shangqing Temple, and the play was banned. After Yang Hansheng and Guo Moruo discussed with Zhou Enlai, the troupe changed the title of the play to Monkey King, and removed some explicit innuendos to Chiang Kai-shek's residence, so that the play could meet the audience.

1942 In the spring, Nanfang Bureau reported to the Central Cultural Committee on the cultural movement work in Chongqing in the past year, saying, "We have concentrated some excellent repertoires." In late April, the first "Fog Season Premiere" drew to a close, and Zhou Enlai gave a banquet to congratulate Qu Yuan on his success. During the dinner, Zhou Enlai said: "In the continuous anti-* * climax, we exploited the loophole of the Kuomintang reactionaries and opened a gap in the drama stage. Comrade Guo Moruo has made great contributions in this struggle. "

Zhang Ruifang said that he was actually a "hidden underground party member". 194 1 before the southern Anhui incident, many performers in Chongqing had a dual identity: they were ostensibly members of literary and art groups under the control of the Kuomintang government, and their lives were guaranteed, organizing amateur performances of progressive dramas. Zhang Ruifang secretly joined the Party in 1939, and in April 1940, he joined the "Long Live China Troupe" which was expanded from the "Women's Chaozhou Opera Club" under the jurisdiction of the China Film Studio of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government. 194 1 year, she left the troupe under the arrangement of the organization and became a "idle person" who did not ask politics on the surface and continued to stay on the stage in Chongqing.

"Efforts" and "Fighting" Beyond "Fog Season"

After the "Southern Anhui Incident", Zhang Ruifang has been striving to go to Yan 'an. Recalling those years, she said, "At that time, young people wanted to go to Yan 'an. "In her eyes, Ouyang Shanzun is the lucky one.

In 2007, Ouyang Shanzun was 97. On the centennial anniversary of the drama, he took the stage in a wheelchair and recited Lu Xun's Passers-by. At the end of the recitation, he actually got up from his wheelchair and walked off the stage. The young dramatist came backstage and gave him a thumbs-up: You are still the best.

When Zhang Ruifang and others were active on the Chongqing stage, Ouyang Shanzun was leading a troupe called "Fighting" to fight guerrilla warfare in various gaps in the border areas behind enemy lines. Ouyang Shanzun was Ou Yangyuqian's nephew and was later adopted by Ou Yangyuqian. 1June, 907, Ou Yangyuqian, Li Shutong, Zeng Xiaogu and other Japanese students performed China's first play, The Black Slave's Call to Heaven, which was adapted from Uncle Tom's Cabin. As Ou Yangyuqian's assistant, Ouyang Shanzun participated in performances such as Thunderstorm, Sunrise and Wet Paint when he was a student. 1938, Ouyang Shanzun participated in the Anti-Japanese Drama Salvation Team, from Shanghai to Yan 'an. 1939, Ouyang Shanzun went to the front from kangda and worked in 120 division "fighting" troupe. 194 1 joined the "guerrilla" troupe and went to the enemy-occupied area for literary propaganda. "At that time, 1 1 the propagandist and seven scouts, each with a gun and 30 bullets, took a mimeograph and simple cosmetics, went to the village to find a temple platform, hung the clips as curtains, and gathered the masses to start the performance."

In 2005, in order to commemorate the 60th anniversary of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's victory, Ouyang Shanzun, Yan Jizhou, Su Min, Shi Weijian, Song Ge, Chen Dalin, Wang Danian, Tan Tai, etc. adapted the plays they performed behind enemy lines 60 years ago: Huliela, Begging for Rain, Well Played, Whole Grains and so on. These plays are all one-act plays, which are relatively short, in order to adapt to the rhythm of war. Ouyang Shanzun said that the dramas of the Guerrilla Troupe were all based on what happened behind enemy lines at that time and were closely related to the lives of ordinary people. Ouyang Shanzun said that once, on the way to transfer, he heard a common people tell an incident that happened in their village: the son of a Japanese worker accidentally killed a Japanese dog, and the owner of the dog took out a pistol and killed the boy. This man no longer works for Japan. Ouyang Shanzun made this story into a drama "People are not as good as dogs", calling on ordinary people not to work for the Japanese.

Fast performance and effective live fast performance were the reasons why drama was able to overcome other art forms in the 1940s, and became the source of propaganda for the war of resistance and progress-not only in the Kuomintang-controlled areas and border areas, but also in enemy-occupied areas like Shanghai. Shanghai drama in the occupied period took another road.

1943, 165438+ 10, the Paris grand theatre in Shanghai kept laughing. According to the advertisement, watching the drama will be "105 laughs, 608 laughs and 20/kloc-0 laughs". This is "Gentleman on the Beam" directed by Huang. In this play, Huang introduced "farce" to China for the first time.

1937, Huang returned from England and taught in the home front at first. Huang's daughter said that in Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged, many details of the story of a group of small intellectuals teaching in a university came from Huang's experience. Huang 1938- 1939 taught at Chongqing National Theatre Academy, and 1940 returned to Shanghai during the "isolated island" period. For returning to Shanghai, Huang Shuqin explained: "He wants to resist Japan, but there is no atmosphere of resistance in the rear." Shao Yingjian, a drama scholar during the occupation of Shanghai, believed that his return was also sent by the producers. Because he took Cao Yu's letter of introduction when he returned to Shanghai.

Huang is a bright figure in the history of drama. His My View on Drama was published in 1962. At that time, he boldly proposed to break through Steiner's one-way artistic view and learn from China's opera aesthetics. In the history of China's drama, his idea is called "freehand brushwork drama view".

It is believed that progressive dramatists were generally influenced by Ibsen, and Bernard Shaw had the greatest influence on Huang. When Huang was studying in England, he sent a script to Bernard Shaw, but actually he received a reply from Bernard Shaw. Bernard Shaw wrote in the letter: "Ibsen is not an easy school, he is Ibsen; Bernard Shaw is not Xiao Pai, he is Bernard Shaw. If Huang wants to achieve something, he must not be a disciple. "

19 18 "new youth" magazine published "Ibsen special issue" in volume 4, issue 6, and Hu Shi wrote "Ibsen doctrine", praising the part of Ibsen's drama that pays attention to reality and social problems. Ibsen doctrine was once popular among literary youth. 1922 Hong Shen returned from studying in the United States. On the boat, someone asked him: Do you want to be a red actor or Shakespeare? He replied: I want to be Ibsen. In the same year, Tian Han came back from Japan and said something similar. When Cao Yu wrote Thunderstorm, he directly used Ibsen's Living Room Drama from the structure.

Ibsen's creative styles are varied all his life, but some of the "social problem dramas" that China dramatists admire and learn are unique, which has a unique background in China. Yu Rongjun is a screenwriter of Shanghai Drama Art Center. With his works such as WM and That Winter, he has become one of the most important screenwriters in Shanghai drama circle. Recently, I am rewriting The Black Slave's Call to Heaven for the Hundred Years of China's Drama. While studying the 1907 edition of "The Record of Black Slaves Calling Heaven", Yu Rongjun found: "Many characteristics of China's drama actually began from its birth." These characteristics mainly include: close to current events, dialogue-oriented, realistic themes and creative techniques, and as a tool to spread ideas. Yu Rongjun pointed out that Mrs. Stowe's original work actually contains many contents, including the memory of the American South, the theme of growth and even the idea of racial reconciliation. However, members of "Spring Willow Club" deliberately only highlighted the part about "black slaves". "This is combined with the nationalist upsurge in China around 1907." Yu Rongjun said.

In fact, Huang's creation is also very realistic. 194 1 In the summer of, Huang and other dramatists organized a Shanghai professional troupe to perform such plays as Metamorphosis and Border Town Story. 19411February, the Pacific incident occurred, the Japanese army occupied the Shanghai Concession, and Shanghai entered a period of full occupation. The most influential drama in this period is Huang's strength school. 1942 In the early summer, he worked hard with Shanghai Art Troupe to perform Haitang, Great Show on Earth and Hero on a Desert Island in the name of Shangyi at Kalden Grand Theatre, which was a great success. Shi Hui is known as the "Drama Emperor" because of his roles as Haitang and Murong Tianci, which shows his unique talent as a character actor. June1943-June 10, Diligent Troupe officially went abroad and insisted on performing at the Paris Grand Theatre until the end of June 1944. During this period, it staged such plays as Gentleman on the Beam, Inspector, Jin Xiaoyu, Lin Chong, Yunnan Uprising, Cleopatra and Heroes in Gone with the Times.

According to Shao Yingjian, a scholar, Huang He's hard-working troupe fought a "war without smoke" during this period. Shao Yingjian collected a lot of information during this period, which showed that the Japanese army intended to carry out a "film war" after occupying Shanghai. In the book War and Movies by 1942, Imamura Taiping once wrote: "It is extremely far away for East Asia 10 billion people to read the same book, but it is urgent for them to unite under the same concept and rush to the heights. Obviously, the role of movies at this time is more important than ever. " Imamura obviously thinks that drama is not his ideal weapon, because "the difference between film and drama is the difference between machinery industry and handicraft industry". Therefore, in 1942, Japan merged the original 1 1 film company in Shanghai to form "Zhonglian" film company, but it did not take special measures for the drama industry. Because at the end of 194 1, there were "38 dance halls and cinemas, 15 Yue theaters and bookstores ... Shanghai Hua Theatre and Shen Theatre. The theater box office is less than 10% of the movie box office. So at that time, many filmmakers who were unwilling to cooperate with the Japanese resigned to perform dramas, which led to the prosperity of Shanghai drama.

The biggest difference between the ascetic group and its counterparts in Chongqing and Yan 'an lies in Huang's attempt at commercial drama. The Shanghai Opera Troupe during the Japanese occupation period had investors. The members of the ascetic group originally belonged to a troupe organized by Sun Huang of Huang Zhi. Later, Roewe was dissolved, and Hard Work was transferred to CZC Entertainment Co., Ltd. invested by Fu Rushan, a builder. Therefore, the hard-working troupe pays great attention to the theater box office. "Hard Work" also has such a strong political drama as Jin Xiaoyu, but it is more a drama that turns ideas into jokes and attracts audiences. Regarding the commercialization of Shanghai drama during the occupation period, Li Jianwu said: "At that time, some people in the mainland accused us of commercialization, but if the theater companies in the occupied areas were not commercialized and politicized, they would only be politicized and colluded with the enemy, puppet and traitor." For this commercialization, China * * * producers acquiesced at that time. Huang Zongying recalled: "At that time, our troupe was instructed by the Party and could not give up this position. To unite this group of people, you can perform some affectionate, romantic and harmless dramas to protect the drama. " Researcher Shao Yingjian also thinks: "In the era of the expansion of political power, it is precisely commercialization that can break the political privilege and let the powerless people make a living. From the standpoint of resisting foreign invaders, the haves will be more active than the proletarians-because what they lose is not the chain. "