Venue: Multi-functional Theatre
Dates: November 08-11, 2018
About
Marriage contains endless pain. A mature man may no longer see everything in the world as absolutely “right” or “wrong”, “yes” or “no”—including social communication, the idea of dealing with affairs and even marriage.
Wedding March is created based on this conception. The drama reveals young people’s confusion on marriage: When is it the right time for marriage? Is there any conflict between marriage and “freedom”? Is the so-called “freedom” reasonable?
This work was written around the 1960s. We cannot help sighing about marriage, which has been a knotty problem for humanity, and just like a cold, it can be treated with good medicine, but never be cured.
The hero and heroine in Wedding March, a pair of admirable lovers, lead an admirable life that many people wish to live, but they disagree with each other in terms of the attitude towards marriage. It seems to other people that their marriage is well-reasoned, yet for them, marriage seems to be something close at hand but unreachable.
People may have their own choice in mind after taking a new look at marriage in Wedding March. No matter how people choose, there should be a reason and people ought to be responsible for the choice. Maybe that’s what this work wants to indicate as a life experience.
Credits
Playwright: Lawrence Langner (the U.S.)
Translator: HAI Cen
Director: REN Ming
Producer: LI Xingtong
Lighting Designer: ZHENG Pengfei
Costume Designer: LUAN Liming
Effects Designer: MENG Fangong
Cast
SONG Yi, LENG Jiyuan, WANG Junrui, SUN Yuhao, NING Tong
Synopsis
“Marriage comes in at the door, while freedom flies away through the window”. This saying is the truth in which White has long believed. This well-known writer and his girlfriend Mary, who is a painter, adhere to a non-marriage doctrine and live a “free” life without marriage until they cannot stand the bottleneck caused by this lifestyle.
After discussions, they decide to find a way out to change the status quo, but they get nothing after trying hard. In the end, they decide to get married to abandon the “delusional freedom” for a real one. As the wedding march starts, their new life begins...
Creative
REN Ming Director
REN Ming is deputy and a member of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress, the president and the director of the Arts Council of Beijing People's Art Theatre, a national class-A director, a Beijing scholar, a guest professor and doctoral supervisor at the Central Academy of Drama, distinguished professor at Beijing Film Academy and vice president of China Drama Association.
He has directed more than 80 dramas including Beijing Grandpa, South Street & North Yard, Family Album, Sunrise, Lotus, I Love Peaches Blossom, Desire under the Elms, Football Club, The First Intimate Contact, Caring Friends, etc.
He is the author of Directors’ Thoughts and The Power of Drama. He has won the “Wenhua Excellent Director Award,” which is the China’s top-class drama award for three times and “Gold Lion Excellent Director Award” for drama twice.
Artist
SONG Yi
SONG Yi graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and is a drama actress at Beijing People's Art Theatre. She has won the best supporting actress of the Chinese Academy Awards.
Dramas: Our Jing Ke, Wedding March
Films: The love Clinic, Psychic, Forever Young
TV Plays: the new version of The Dream of Red Mansions (2010); Under the Hawthorn Tree (2011); A Plan of Baby (2012); The King of Soldier (2013); Detective Dee the 5th (2014); The Disguiser (2015); The Rhapsody of A Summer Dream (2016); Entrepreneurial Age (2017); Qing Yu Nian (2018).
Presenter
Beijing People's Art Theatre
Beijing People's Art Theatre is a Chinese national theatre with unique performance style. Built on June 12th, 1952, it was first headed by CAO Yu, the great dramatist in China. Since its foundation, the theare has staged nearly 300 plays of different forms and styles put up here. The representative plays include Hufu, CAI Wenji, WU Zetian, Longxugou Ditch, Camel Xiangzi, Tea House, Thunderstorm, Sunrise, WANG Zhaojun, Absolute Signal, Xiaojing Hutong, and so on. Of all these drama works, more than one has been performed over 100 times, and won national "Wenhua Award (for professional theatrical artworks)", "the Best Works Award" and municipal "Gold Chrysanthemum Award" and "Literature & Art Award".
Over the past half century, the performances by Beijing People's Art Theatre have spread all over the country, and the theatre's distinctive performance style has taken root in the mass audience. In 1980, Tea House was performed in Germany, France and Switzerland, which is the first time for Chinese stage play to go abroad. Following that, a series of plays were performed in Japan, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Egypt, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, including Tea House, WANG Zhaojun, Top Restaurant, Death of a Salesman, Uncle Goggie's Nirvana, Bird Man, RUAN Lingyu, Curio, and Wuchang Nüdiao.
In recent years, Beijing People’s Art Theatre has brought out a series of excellent plays, such as Glittering Days, Courtyard South of North Street, The Chinese Orphan, I love Peach Blossoms, The Family Portrait, White Deer Plain, The Citizens of Beijing, Coriolanus, Hamlet, The Intimate Friends, Wotou Guild Hall, The Sadness of Comedies, Our JING Ke, Home, Death of a Salesman, and Koushien.
Beijing People’s Art Theatre now owns two performance theatres—the Capital Theatre and the Experimental Theatre.
In June 2012, Beijing People’s Art Theatre ushered in its 60th birthday. In the same year, the Art Centre of Beijing People’s Art Theatre, which works on both creation and production, was established in Huairou district in Beijing.
