Two plays commemorate the 100th anniversary of modern Chinese drama -- Lao She's Watching Chang'an from the West and Winter of Two Cities, a new play about family miscommunication in Shanghai and Tokyo.

 

Compared with Teahouse, Watching Chang'an from the West is not that well known among the many works by Lao She (1899-1966). However, when the story was first adapted to stage about 50 years ago, its bold sarcasm of society attracted more to the theater.

 

This year, the classic play has been re-adapted to commemorate the 100th anniversary of modern Chinese drama. Starring famous actor Ge You (Best Actor at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival), it is undoubtedly the most talked-about drama production in the country these days. It will be staged at the Majestic Theater through Sunday.

 

Often compared with The Inspector General by former Soviet Union writer Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol, the original play by Lao She is adapted from a true story in 1950s China. The main character is a trickster who uses all kinds of cons to win people's trust and get what he wants.

 

In three years, he successfully gets a new identity, a substantial income, honors and awards, and he finally becomes an important government official.

 

In Chang'an, Ge makes his return to the stage after 20 years, though he is familiar to moviegoers. Ge's major roles in a series of comedy films, such as Cellphone and The Big Shot's Funeral, have made him well known throughout China. In the play, he uses his unique, signature comedy style to depict a new 21st-century pirate.

 

He drives a high-tech wheelchair, affects a stammer, and forges checks and certificates. From time to time, he sings Chinese pop songs and practices Indian dancing to entertain. It is reported that audiences laughed uproariously.

 

The play has been a smash-hit wherever it has toured, including Beijing, Nanjing and Hangzhou. The tickets for yesterday's Shanghai premiere were sold out days before the show.

 

A veteran actor though he is, Ge says he was actually quite nervous at first because he hasn't performed on stage for so long. He says his head "was stuffed with lines and he couldn't even fell asleep for several nights."

 

Drama, however, is more fun than film for Ge. "When shooting for a film, I can never foresee the final result because any segment might be cut at the end. Drama is different. Nobody, including the director, can control the actor on the stage. It gives the actor satisfaction."

 

For the small theater, Shanghai Drama Arts Center and Tokyo's People Arts Theater co-present Winter of Two Cities, a story about the miscommunications between husband and wife, parents and children, whether in Tokyo or Shanghai.

 

Adapted from local playwright Yu Rongjun's signature works, Last Winter and Activated Carbon, the new play cleverly links two stories on one stage. It gathers actors from both countries. Interestingly, the Chinese actors will be speaking Chinese while the Japanese actors will be speaking Japanese, and they speak past each other, not understanding.

 

"I was attracted by the play's family-centered theme," says Hakariya Kazuhisa, the director from Japan. "Home is the root of everyone of us."

 

(Shanghai Daily March 17, 2007)