March 27th is World Theatre Day. Peking Opera "Scrooge" newly created and rehearsed by Beijing Peking Opera Theatre, presents the comedy of the same name by French playwright Molière on the Peking Opera stage with the formula of singing, speaking, acting and acrobatic fighting, allowing a wonderful collision of Chinese and Western art and culture.

The Peking Opera "Scrooge" is the first time in recent years that Beijing Peking Opera Theatre adapted a famous foreign literary work and interpreted it in a small theater Peking Opera style. In order to make a natural presentation of the Peking Opera, "Scrooge" is set in ancient China, with localization and Peking Opera treatment from characterization and script structure.

At the beginning, the director designed a unique "mask dance", a combination of Western masquerade theater and traditional Chinese doll performance form, witty and humorous display of the main characters and their personalities, but also let the audience from the beginning of the prologue distinctly feel that this is a distinctive, new style of Beijing opera.

In terms of costume design, the play also incorporates Western elements into the traditional Chinese opera costumes, such as the costumes of "Miss Ma" and "Miss Gong", which adopt the general style of Beijing opera pleats and jacket skirts, but employ Western style of strapless dresses in the design of the collar, giving people a sense of novelty.

In the current situation of scarcity of new productions leading by clown, the Beijing Peking Opera Theatre created this "Scrooge" for the first time with the first lead actor of clown, and its significance is beyond words. The first-rate actor, Mei Qingyang, a renowned Beijing Opera clown, and Sun Shimin, an outstanding young actor from the Peking Opera Theatre, played the lead role of "Master Gong", and brought together the best actors from the civilian clown, martial clown, vivacious and unmarried women and young, so that the characteristics of the clown act could be fully displayed.

It is also worth discussing how to grasp the scale of innovation and integration when using traditional Chinese art to express western texts.

Translator: TANG Yingqi

Reviewer: CHEN Nuoqi