Verse to stage
Traditional Chinese poetry enters modern theater
Chinese theater director Tian Gebing is known for incorporating elements from visual art into his plays.
In his German-Chinese 2015 production, Totally Happy ,he explored the relationship between society and the individual without using conversation between the characters and without any apparent storyline.
In May, he staged Decalogue at the oldest theater in Poland, the National Stary Theatre, which was built in 1781.
His latest production, Once Upon a Time There Was a
Mountain, sees Tian’s turning traditional Chinese poetry into contemporary theater. The multimedia performance will premier in Beijing on Saturday.
“Nearly all Chinese grew up reading and reciting Chinese poems. But usually these poems conjure images of ancient men in long robes with serious faces, which are boring,” he says.
“I don’t want it to be that way. I want to make these poems fun and visible.”
Describing his show as the Chinese theatrical version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Tian’s story is about a young girl who falls asleep while doing her Chinese poetry homework.
In her dream, the characters and scenes portrayed in the poems come alive.
The founder of Paper Tiger Theater Studio in 1997, one of the earliest independent theater companies in China, Tian invited actors from his studio and an international crew of French scene designer Fabien Iliou and Warsaw based musician Piotr Kurek to be part of his new work.
“We discussed the plan for nearly a year. I drew inspiration from traditional Chinese calligraphy and ink paintings to create the visual design. I wanted the audience to join the adventure,” says Iliou.
Composer Kurek who collaborated with Tian on Decalogue last year, uses a variety of instruments such as the guitar, bass, clarinet and violin to depict “wonderland” as well as to express the many moods of the characters.
“I also worked with Beijingbased experimental musicians who helped me create the soundscape,” Kurek says.
Speaking of his latest work, Tian says: “We try to make every abstract line of a poem concrete. For example, when a poem line talks about a farewell, we could create a funeral scene.”
The others Tian invited for the project include his longtime partner and choreographer-dancer Wang Ya’nan, who has been working with Tian since 2001 and costume designer, Ma Defan, who has designed costumes for movies, including Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s The Love of the Hawthorn Tree and White Deer Plain by director Wang Quan’an.
Born and raised in Northwest Shaanxi province in the 1960s, Tian, who is in his mid50s, is a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing.
On what he hopes to achieve through his work, Tian, who has been involved in Beijing’s independent theater scene since the late 1980s, says: “I want to create an atmosphere that changes the impression about poetry. With music, contemporary dance and multimedia technology, the audience will have a new perspective on old Chinese poetry.”
I want to create an atmosphere that changes the impression about poetry.” Tian Gebing, theater director