Why is it so popular to interpret foreign absurd plays with China traditional operas?

Why should China's traditional operas be used to stage foreign classic plays? If this not only broadens the performance theme of China traditional opera, but also enables it to reach more audiences, then what kind of foreign classic plays and how to perform them with China traditional opera are more related to the development of China traditional opera itself and the audience's understanding of it today.

This chair rehearsed by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe interprets Eugene Yunescu's play of the same name in the form of Kunqu Opera. After several rounds of performances at home and abroad and repeated adjustments, it will be staged at Tianqiao Art Center this week. Eunice, a French playwright born in Romania, is regarded as one of the representative writers of western absurd drama. He wrote "Chair" in the mid-20th century, which put "absence" on the stage and made the chair the protagonist.

In the play, an old couple in their nineties live on an island surrounded by the sea. Before they die, they want to invite guests to a speech. The message of the speech claims to be the truth handed down by God to the elderly, and it is a secret about life and all mankind. The inarticulate old man specially invited an orator to help him. But none of the guests really appeared in the whole play, only the old man and the old woman gradually filled the empty chairs in the whole room. Finally, the speaker finally appeared, and the old couple died by jumping into the sea. The speaker who stayed to face the audience was deaf and dumb, and could not convey any information to everyone at all.

Such works can only be accepted by the audience through the stage and program of the opera, and form an emotional voice, which needs all-round polishing from the script to the stage. The Chair by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe turned an old couple into an old man and an old woman, one named Wang Sheng and the other named Qian Niang. In the play, the actions of the characters written by Yunescu are preserved, but the images and motives of the characters are almost completely replaced by another philosophy of existence, or more accurately, a philosophy that is more in line with China people's concept of existence.

Our history of literature and art classifies the works of Yunescu, Beckett and Genet as absurd, because these plays are absolutely pessimistic about life and the world, so they often leave the audience with nothingness of meaning. However, The Chair is more about the fleeting youth and the beauty of aging, which reminds people of the sigh of life in the dream literature in the legend of Tang Dynasty.

At the beginning of the performance, accompanied by the sound of gongs and drums, two actors walked onto the stage with bamboo poles from the left and right sides of the stage, boarded two chairs in Taichung respectively, and pushed the window with the routine movements of traditional Chinese opera. Qian Niang motioned to throw the bamboo basket out of the window, and Wang Sheng walked on the sidewalk. Isn't this "draw water with a sieve"? You persuaded Qian Niang to be disobedient, changed Wang Sheng's chair, and drew water with a bamboo basket. You were deeply touched.

This kind of idyllic Wang Sheng and stubborn Qian Niang went on to tell their wasted lives. Yunescu called his "Chair" a "sad farce" and presented it on the stage to convey a pessimistic and desperate attitude towards life to the audience in a visual way of comedy and games. On the stage of Shanghai, "chair" is still a game between an old man and an old lady. The whole performance is still to receive invisible guests, but the chairs on the stage have become the "Erlang Chair" with one table and two chairs in China traditional opera, and the game conveys the games and interests of China ancient opera. As Li Yu said, "The legend was originally designed to relieve worries, and the staff were exhausted."