Three plays were showed in Duanjun Thatre: Spinning top, Rong and WoWo. The organic association and perfect tolerance of the classics and modern subtly display the spirits of the ancient Chinese culture.
As is known to all, Chinese Shadow Puppet Plays, Peking Opera and Kun Opera are the charming treasures which is on their way of disappearing. They are the practice and thinking from the ancestors. However, with the development of the aesthetic and business activity, these kinds of art are neglected by the young. This display of the works offers us with a satisfying answer, a feast of the spirit which comes back and forth in the abstract shadow of light and complicated history.
The first show is Spinning Top. Originated from the folk theatrical performance and based on LU Xun’s masterpiece Male Ghost, Female Ghost, it depicts a dream-like two-dimensional space which also means growth: puppet with masks, difficult hanging like in acrobatics, luxury and softness of silk pulling down, unique singing way in Kun Opera, motional way to procedure. God of Death in black crudely looks at the world, holding the niche and brandishing the cloth symbolizing the fate. Spinning top player, suddenly realizing the idea of Zen, appreciates himself silently in endless spinning. The leading role is not satisfied after training, furious after playing by others, wild when releasing the clothes in wrestling. The male and female roles are stiff as puppets when they move together. The Young girl in red is beautiful, and she is in all her lives rotation. The leading role failed in the struggle for running away. All become sad signs in the lonely dancing of the spinning top. Speechlessly, depression and confusion haunt, leaving people considering and shivering with the female sound lingering---- “Worry about none; leave all troubles alone; at last one will realize the spirit of the world.”
The second show is called Rong (meaning integration), the passionate cross-over of Peking Opera and hot street dancing, the grand performance yet closely connected to real life. It is co-performed by the heir and principles of the famous opera family, which is really spectacular. Painted faces come one after another; the water ink stains a vigorous face, signing on the up and down in life just as the tides coming and going. The soft movement of the body in Taiji is so smoothing that it becomes easy to be intimate with the universe through your body, and the integration is finally achieved. The heartless sadness was repeated by the King bidding farewell to the concubine, "Concubine Yu, what could I do? Soldiers on the frontier care less about their lives. How many of them can make it home after ten years fighting?" Two sentences, seemingly irrelevant, brew great sorrow and sadness in blankly pain when put together. Suddenly, God comes from heaven, saving and cleaning their desperate soles. God brandishes his cry, moving everyone with his enthusiasm. The stiff limbs dance flexibly and vigorously, breaking confusing ignorance and injecting new life. The soul of the Peking Opera, the spirit of Taiji, combine into brand new beauty of the theatre.
The third show WoWo is the miniature of the lonely crowd in the cities. The real life of the small potatoes is dramatically magnified. Two persons never talk to each other, always fear the world outside, and wait in the torture of days dragging long. Time passes by. After 651 days, they are still lonely and lament over the hollow and cold body themselves. Actually, it is never difficult to break the ice if people can walk out of the shadow in their hearts and brace others bravely. Open the heart and let sunshine in; love will grow silently. Hiding is not useful. Possibly what you can see is the skyscrapers and cold cement and iron forest in the city, but you never know it is the warm hearts that are beating only millimeters away. The background of the cartoon and the single shadow of the character are mingled together, strange, contradictory and complicated. But the expressing way beyond expectation exactly composes the shock delicate as fairytale yet powerful as canons.
The rising of the new force adds creative and passionate blood to the cultural heritage which in dangerous on the cliff. The point is as suggested in the title: beauty in the integration. A precise balance has been found in the classical modesty and modern pursuit. An aesthetic work, therefore, lasts shining from the power of integration
Photo of Spinning Top
Photo of Rong
Photo of wow
