Two Beijing Spoken Drama Comedies Featuring Social Critique Seen in the Summer of 2014

PERFORMANCE REVIEW: TWO BEIJING SPOKEN DRAMA COMEDIES FEATURING SOCIAL CRITIQUE SEEN IN THE SUMMER OF 2014 JING SHEN Eckerd College, USA In the summer of 2014 I had the chance to see performances of two spoken drama (huaju 話劇) comedies in Beijing: Zhao ge laopo xian yaohao 找個老婆先搖號 (To find a wife, first draw lots), staged by Leizile Xiaogongchang 雷子樂笑工廠 (Leizile laugh factory; a.k.a. Alan’s Studio),1 and Yangtai 陽台 (Balcony), staged by DaDao Wenhua 大道文化 (DaDao culture).2 Although the two plays used different types of stagecraft and actors, they both investigate similar social issues in contemporary China at the same time that they provide entertainment. Zhao ge laopo xian yaohao can be read as an irreverent parody of Lao She’s 老舍 (1899–1966) Beijing-flavored classic Luotuo Xiangzi 駱駝祥子 (Rickshaw Boy).3 In the play a migrant worker named Bei Shangguang 北上廣,4 riding a bicycle absentmindedly , runs into a car driven by a huge Beijing girl, Gong Linna 宫臨娜.5 She develops a crush on this migrant worker at first sight, although he is not interested in her at all. As if destined, they encounter again in a library in which he is hiding from his fiancée’s family, and meet a third time yet when they happen to sit next 1 This performance group was founded in 2007. In the introduction on their official website (http://news.cuctv.com/news_9485.html; accessed March 3, 2016), there is the claim that they have produced 46 works with a total of over 2,000 performances. A list of municipal grants they have won is also given. 2 They were founded in 1994. For an official introduction to the company, see the three postings at http://www.dadaowh.com/about/ (accessed March 3, 2016), where the claim is made that their eight comedies and one musical have had a total of more than 600 performances. You can also see that Yangtai premiered in 2005 and that there have been three different editions distinguished by the version of Chinese used (Standard Chinese, Sichuanese, Yunnanese), a pedagogical (jiaoxue 教學) edition, a youth (qingchun 青春) edition, and an invited stars (mingxing jiameng 明 星加盟) edition. A separate posting on Yangtai performances in 2013 (http://www.dadaowh.com/ view.asp?/661.html; accessed March 3, 2016) also mentions a new luxury (haohua 豪華) edition. Lectures about performing the play have been posted online (http://open.163.com/movie/2012/ 10/8/K/M8DJ5DLTB_M8DJ5J38K.html; accessed March 3, 2016). 3 Interestingly, that summer also saw the premiere of a western opera version of Luotuo Xiangzi. See Xiong Yuqing, “‘Rickshaw Boy’: Classic Chinese novel gets opera adaptation,” Global Times, May 21, 2014 (http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/861512.shtml; accessed March 3, 2016). 4 These three characters are commonly used to represent the three biggest, most commercial cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. 5 Gong is a fairly rare surname and literally means “palace.” Na connotes feminine charm, but lin, although it means “approach,” might stress how far she is from having feminine charm. CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 35.1 (July 2016): 70–74© The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2016 DOI 10.1080/01937774.2016.1183328 to each other on a flight. Gong Linna, whose deceased father bequeathed her a generous legacy, owns a big rental company, in which Dou Wentao 豆文濤6 is an administrative manager (xingzheng zhuguan 行政主管). Dou claims that Gong’s father had agreed to let him marry her, but she only has eyes for Bei Shangguang, who looks for a job and ends up working in her company. She tries hard to seduce Bei and is successful, but he regrets having sex with her. She then feigns pregnancy to pressure him to marry her. Unlike Xiangzi, however, he runs away, and she is lovesick . In the end, touched by her devotion, Bei agrees to marry her, although he is still not attracted to her. This might sound like a pretty serious story, but absurd touches, such as random characters played by the same actor doing odd things (e.g., burns his own hand with a cigarette, mimes riding a bike), keep the tone from getting too serious. Yangtai, directed and co...