Interview

Fa Zidu






Mr.Wang Zuxi : Director
Mis.Iku Ishikawa : Inteviewer




(at back stage)

Interviewer: Can you give us an outline of the play and its content?

Director: The play is based on an ancient Chinese story.

I: An ancient story?

D: Yes, during the times of the Spring-Autumn and the time of the Waring Stayes. In the book The Strong Countries of Dong Zhou. It described a country named Zheng. It was one of the kingdoms in Shang Dynasty. The king of the kingdom Zheng had suddenly died. The heaven son of Zhou sent a beautiful girl to the king of Zheng when he was dying and hoped that he would recover soon after possessing this beautiful girl. But never thinking that the old king of Zheng had already died, and the beautiful girl was left and there was a vacancy for his crown. Who will be the new king of Zheng and who will the beautiful girl belong to. The relatives of the old king who had already died were his two brothers. His two sons and the old king's first wife's brother. Several persons began to contend it. The beautiful girl and the vacancy of the throne. At the same time the play also described that girl "Ru Yi", the part which Mis. Li Yuanyuan played.

I: Ru Yi ist the beautiful girl of that story?

D: Right. Then she began to select who she will marry? If she can marry a man who will be the new king of Zheng, she can stay in the palace forever, but the question is wether she could find the man who will really inherit the position of king.

I: Is the story based on historical facts?

D: In the history of ancient China, the kingdom of Zheng and the name of these persons are all true. But only the content of the story is changed. For in the traditional opera of China. There is one theatrical programme Fa Zidu. So we use the name to be the title of the play, only because it is a typical name in Beijing Opera of China.

I: But the content of Fa Zidu in Beijing Opera is quite different from the play.

D: Yes, completely different. In Beijing Opera, it only described that he shot "Kao Shu" to death for contending for the position of King. After that he was full of sorrow and fear in his heart. It's a drama of "Wu Gong". It has some action such as to turn a somersault on the stage. We changed it into a comedy. Although the drama is historical subject matter, the meathod by which we handled it is quite modern. So we thought much about the aesthetic standards and the aesthetic judgement of the audience nowadays. We re-wrote the play, including the stage costume to the whole story of the play or to the relation-ships of figures is completely reasonable.

I: What do you want to express with this modern version of the play?

D: We want to express personal relationships, everyone has one thing in his heart which he had thought, all want to get the right, to have the beautiful girl and money. Modern Society is just in this era now, everyone wants to get the right, but right is endless. You lose much at the same time when you get much, and new sorrow will be near you after receiving a lot, and also lots of self-respect to be a human being. We want through the story, all the story to express the main meaning.

I: All the story of the play already became the way of modern people.

D: Yes, modern spectators, especially modern young people are very fond of it. This is a remote story. But why modern young man accept it so easily because we re-paraphraised it.

I: The play has some elements of a tragedy as well as of a comedy.

D: It's a tragic story, but we deal with it in a comic way. From the whole story, audiences were falling in the sound of laughtter, when they were laughing. Maybe they also thought something that had happened around them, or something about their own.

I: I was touched by the creativity of your work.

D: We have the aid of the name which is a historical story, they are all the true name about the part except for Ru Yi is made up by ourselves, but the story about them and the relationships among them are much different than before.

I: It did not point to any exect era. For example, the politics of China or other things like that. It is about common issues and therefore of universal significance.

D: There is no political colours in the play, only human beings. The story of the play stirs up the spectator's feelings. So it is possible for modern people to cause resonance after seeing it. The things which appeared in the land of China. Certainly Chinese viewers can feel it deeply, and have strong sentiment about it.

I: I heard that this is the last day of performance?

D: Tomorrow!

I: How about the audience's reaction?

D: They still like it very much. This is the second performance. We have had more than thirty scenes in the first time, only because that the audience still wants to see it. So we add ten scenes on the second times. From the reaction of the audience and its situation of ticket-sales, all is quite well!

I: The situation of the ticket-sales is good. Are many people in your theatrical troupe who have been ebgaged in creative plays?

D: Yeah, the leaders of the stage play when they chose theatrical subjects, usually favour subjects with distinguishing features.

I: My congratulations again for a very successful performance.

D: Thank you.

I: Can you tell us something about the actors?

D: I am very pleased with the performances of our actors. They are allexcellent. Most of them are young people from the Institute of Stage Play. The lead parts were performed by graduates from the Shanghai Institute for Traditional Opera. They have played parts in "Kao Shu" and are all well-known in the theater and TV world.

I: During the rehearsals, was there anything you were not satisfied with? What was the most difficult thing in directing this play?

D: To arrange a stage play with so many talented actors costs a lot of money, and it is usually not profitable. The main reason is the big investment and the fact, that many actors had to give up existing contracts for movies and other projects.

I: How long did it take you to get ready for the first performance?

D: We spent two month to rehearse the play.

I: Many people used to study TV drama, and at the same time advertisement and film. Are they still in the same situation? What about the members of the troupe?

D: The members of our troupe are generally in the same situation.

I: Still the performance on the stage is .....

D: Certainly the problems of stage performances are the same all over the world. Actors and actresses spend a lot of time for the preparation of their performance and then they have to repeat the same performance many times. For movie and TV productions you shoot a scene and it is over. Money is also more of a problem with stage performances. Actors also earn much less on stage than in TV or movie projects. Nevertheless we hat a lot of enthusiasm on the stage. For the actors this is a challenge and they love it. Everyday they can play for a large audience and the receive a lot of laughter. It gives them a feeling of success. The sound of an audience laughter is the highest remuneration and you can not get it in a movie or TV production.

I: In recent years, your achivement on the stage is quite ompressive. Could you give us a few more examples?

D: Personally I am fond of it.

I: Can you talk about yourself?

D: I am not a director for stage plays. I was invited to direct.

I: Oh, that's the thing. What did you do before this?

D: I am ......

I: Film?

D: No, I am from a theater of regional military headquarters. I am a military man.

I: Oh, I see. What brought you to this stage play troupe?

D: Chinese directors often communicate with each other. I did a play for the Institute of Youth and Art and one for the Institute of Experimental Theater. I also visit other places for shootings. I also did a play called "Qing Yi" before. This play for the Institute of Stage Play I did because it provided me with a new challenge.

I: So, this kind of experimental stage play you have not directed before?

D: No, I have not.

I: Do you like it?

D: I like it. I do it only because I like it.

I: What about the drama itself?

D: I participated in writing it, but others did most of the work.

I: You did not only direct this play, you also participated in rewriting it?

D: Well, the three of us wrote it. We decided that we wanted to change the original tragedy into a comedy. After thinking it over, we started to rewrite the theme of the play.

I: Why did you change the original form into a comedy?

D: We are presenting a period of our history. It should be possible to look at it with a smile on the face. The audience nowadays needs to laugh more. Modern stages do not have enough comedies. Not enough good comedies. That is why we tried it. It seems that we were successful. A large audience accepted our play.

I: You were successful this time. Will you try to do similar projects again?

D: Yes. Comedy is always a challenge for the actors and for the director.

I: There are still many questions...

D: You are always welcome to come again.

I: Thank you very much for this interview.

translated by Miss. Wang Jinghua and Mr. Thomas Natter.




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