Six Lao She stories to make stage debut

It's no surprise that actor-turned-director Fang Xu's next stage production is going to bring more works of Lao She (1899-1966), one of China's most influential authors, to life.

It is, perhaps, more of a surprise that instead of adapting one of Lao She's more obvious full-length novels, Fang has decided to demonstrate his love for the author's work by bringing six of his lesser recognised short stories to the stage for the first time.

Titled Lao She's Short Stories, the play is based on six tales, written by the novelist, whose real name was Shu Qingchun, between 1934 and 1935: Neighbors, Life Choices, Black Li and White Li, Sacrifice, My Ideal Family and Twenty Notices for Audiences.

The play made its debut at the Shanghai Art Theater on Saturday, and will be staged at Beijing's Tianqiao Performing Arts Center over May 19-20.

"Lao She was a master of story-telling. With his short stories, he successfully portrayed various characters through vivid and humorous language," Fang told a news conference in Beijing recently.

According to 85-year-old Shu Ji, the author's eldest daughter, her father wrote more than 50 short stories and those being adapted for the new play were written while he was teaching at both Cheeloo and Shandong universities.

Shu Ji says that the six stories reflect the lives and struggles of ordinary people. Life Choices tells the story of a young couple, who live from paycheck to paycheck, while Black Li and White Li follows two brothers who fall in love with the same woman. Sacrifice depicts the ironies that befall a doctor who struggles with anomie-a dissatisfaction with one's own culture after experiencing a new one-when he returns home from his stud-ies in the United States.

"Lao She's language is simple but sharp. The characters he wrote decades ago are still relevant in contemporary society," Shu Ji observes.

The play features an all-male cast and will comprise the same actors who starred in Fang's last production, Mr Ma and Son, which was based on Lao She's novel of the same name.

Since its debut at Beijing Capital Theater in November 2016, the play, which draws largely on Lao She's own experience when he taught Mandarin at the University of London in the 1920s, has been touring nationwide for the past two years.

"The all-male cast brought a surprising chemistry. It left space for the audience to imagine," says Fang, who will debut Lao She's Short Stories by performing in Twenty Notices for Audiences, a witty piece that also relies on audience interaction.

Just like Mr Ma and Son-where Fang invited a band to perform live onstage to "serve as a character along with the other actors"-in this new production, he will invite Gao Jianmin, who plays a three-stringed Chinese lute called sanxian, to perform along with the other actors.

Veteran actress, Siqin Gaowa, was one of the consultants Fang invited to write the script for his latest play. The 68-year-old actress became a household name in China after playing the female lead in the 1982 film adaption of Lao She's novel, Rickshaw Boy.

"Fang is keen on adapting Lao She's works, not just the famous ones, but also the less well-known pieces. He has delved into the characters and his plays appeal to the audience," she says.

Lao She is renowned for his style that is grounded in the dialect and culture of old Beijing.

So it is no surprise that, as a Beijing native who grew up in the courtyard of a populated hutong (alley), 52-year-old Fang feels a deep connection to the material.

"The characters in Lao She's works remind me of my neighbors in the hutong when I was a child," he reminisces. "They are so ordinary, vivid and real. They are fascinating."

In 2012, he performed in one of acclaimed director Lin Zhaohua's plays, Five Acts of Life. It was a combination of five short stories by Lao She, and depicted both the tragedy and comedy in ordinary people's lives against the backdrop of early 1900s Beijing.

That same year, Fang started his own adaption of the author's work. His first attempt, a one-man show entitled The Life of Mine, tells the sad story of a low-ranking policeman in Beijing in the early 20th century. It was a big success when it premiered at Fang's alma mater, the Central Academy of Drama.

Following on from that success, Fang adapted the writer's other two well-known novels, Divorce and Cat Country, for the stage.

"My adaptations are to serve his works," Fang concludes. "If I could only do one thing in my career, I would like to turn all of Lao She's works into plays."