In 1957, the Beijing People's Art Theater brought "Returning to the Snowy Night" by the famous playwright Wu Zuguang onto the stage; after 68 years, the classic was renewed. The drama reappeared the stage of the People's Art Theater with a new lineup and presentation. What it showed to the audience is not only a classic work in the history of modern Chinese drama, but also the innovation and aesthetic pursuit of the Beijing People's Art Theater in the new era.

　　"Returning to the Snowy Night" created by Wu Zuguang in 1942 takes the love tragedy of the famous Peking Opera actor Wei Liansheng and his bureaucratic concubine Yuchun as a clue, and asks about the dignity of human nature in the interweaving of the powerful and humble. In the play, Wei Liansheng goes from being sought after "playing" to awakened individuals, and Yuchun moves from a "canary"-like living state to a pursuit of freedom. This transformation from "ignorance" to "awakening" still has practical significance in contemporary times. Especially Yuchun's question: "Isn't the poor person the one who doesn't know he is poor?" It directly points to the numbness of human nature and the difficulty of awakening, which can be regarded as an aphorism that transcends the times.

　　However, as a work born more than half a century ago, the love story of the famous opera actor and his concubine and the romantic feelings with strong literati ideals in "Returning to the Snowy Night" tells the story of the opera celebrity and his concubine, and the romantic feelings with strong literary ideals, are easily considered to be somewhat outdated and clichéd; the emotional development between Wei Liansheng and Yuchun in the script is also not convincing enough due to the lack of delicate and solid emotional preparation. How to make such a work appeal to today's audiences has challenged today's creators and actors.

　　Feng Yuanzheng, the director of the Beijing People's Art Art and the director of the play, invited Liu Heng, an opera actor from the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, to his mind, to "Wei Liansheng", which became an opportunity to rehearse the play. Director Yan Rui, who has a deep opera skills and performance experience, and other actors in the crew also helped Liu Heng, who was already hardworking, constantly figure out the characters, so that he finally achieved "the poetic rhythm of opera and the texture of life of drama", and stood firmly on the stage of the People's Arts. This is not only a breakthrough in Liu Heng's personal artistic career, but also reflects the concept of "open casting" of Beijing People's Art Theater.

　　As a Kunqu opera actor who was born in a martial arts, Liu Heng crossed the drama stage for the first time and challenged the role of a male actress. He not only showed outstanding opera skills, but also overcame years of martial arts performance habits, and also portrayed the complex situations and emotional entanglements of a generation of famous actors, which is extremely difficult. By restraining the fierce eyes of martial artists, he gave the character a elegant scholarly temperament, and at the same time, he showed the fragility and tenacity of a famous actor with soft and hard body language, and integrated the stylized movements of opera into the character creation. The elegance of the long silk dance, the rhythm of the folding fan opening and closing, and even the pause of the cloud hand turning, all externalize Wei Liansheng's character identity and emotional world. Whether it was Wei Liansheng's solitude or the emotional scene with Yuchun, Liu Heng all advanced the rich emotions of the characters with delicate pauses and gazes. In the last scene, Yuchun played by Lu Lu, who has a foundation in dancing, and Wei Liansheng played by Liu Heng, a large number of beautiful and moving dances together. They have both the beauty of dance and the elegance of opera, and jointly create a "short but brilliant" love image.

　　It is particularly worth mentioning that in addition to the male and female protagonists, as well as Aunt Ma and Su Hongji, played by two veteran actors Liang Danni and Li Hongtao, each with their own highlights. The two characters, Li Rongsheng, played by Liang Guodong, played by the young actor of Beijing People's Art Theater, and Wang Xingui, played by Liu Chen, are extremely glorious, performing the complexity of human nature and the flavor of life. Based on his own experience as a local opera family, Liang Guodong performed a vicissitudes of Liyuan people who have become "super" behind the scenes in his every move and tears, and performed a deep and touching performance of a speculative little figure like Wang Xingui with a moderate and sensible performance. The actors in the play, who have "promoted the role" fans, express the comic exaggerated comedy techniques with comic colors, which also coincides with the contemporary star-chasing phenomenon. It can be clearly seen that the entire crew has conducted certain opera performance training, and almost every character will "show off", which shows the importance of traditional culture and professional requirements for actors by Beijing People's Art Theater. If the performance can be more compact in overall rhythm and more unified in style, I believe it will have stronger appeal.

　　The most amazing thing about the Beijing People's Art Theater's version of "Returning to the Snowy Night" is the aesthetic pursuit of the entire work. Whether it is stage presentation or actor performance, the play is not similar to the traditional realism common on the stage of the Beijing People's Art Theater, but emphasizes the "Oriental Poetry Beauty" that combines traditional opera with modern aesthetics. The stage design uses a simple and poetic freehand style to bring people's visual and spiritual aesthetic feelings. The layers of drooping hazy veils are like the ups and downs of life, which is a metaphor for the impermanence of fate; the reclining crabapple branches symbolize the bold pursuit of freedom, love and ideals. The afterglow of the Kun flute is swaying, and the sound of the drums is shocking. In terms of music and sound effects, it also creates inner dramatic tension in a restrained and restrained and just right way.

　　The most wonderful thing is that although the play is called "Returning to the Snowy Night", there is no snow on the stage, which brings the aesthetic of freehand painting and complacent Chinese opera to the extreme. Especially in the current stage where the technical means of "heavy snow" have been abused, the "snow-free" stage design of "Going Back at Snowy Night" is unconventional, but it can inspire people's imagination even more. When the wind and snow are not on the stage, but in everyone's heart, the mood of thinking about the leisure of the world is deeper and sad and crying is even more profound, and it also makes people feel that everyone is returning home at night on the road of life through wind and rain. (Photo by Fang Fei, a reporter from Beijing Evening News)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]