After 70 Years, a Production That Redefines a Huaju Classic: Wang Yansong’s New Interpretation of The Savage Land

Abstract

At the upper center of a bare stage, we see the back of two figures dressed like terracotta warriors from the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC) tombs (although in civilian clothes) with big papier-mâché heads. A man in a dirty gray shirt and pants (Chou Hu) pushes open their extended arms to enter a room. He calls in a hushed voice, “Daxing.” From stage right enters a man (Daxing) in an earthy yellow gown as if sleepwalking, murmuring, “How dark! How dark!” He is followed by three terracotta figures like the two already onstage. Another four terracotta figures enter from stage left, with the last one much shorter than the others, a child with a gigantic head. Daxing stops at center stage, calls out, “Jinzi” and turns to stage right murmuring, “My dagger, my dagger.” As he raises his dagger, Chou Hu grabs it, holds Daxing from behind, and stabs him. Immediately, the terracotta figures turn away from these two men, too horrified to look. Chou Hu stares at the pulled-out dagger, mumbles, “He’s done,” lays down Daxing’s body under stark white light, and collapses to the floor to Daxing’s right and front. A cellist sitting on upper stage left begins to play Mozart’s Requiem as the chorus (formed by the terracotta figures) stands in two vertical lines on either side of Daxing’s body and starts to sing the tune, “Ah, ah, ah….” A young woman (Jinzi) in blazing red blouse and pants enters from upstage left, followed by a blind old woman (Mother Jiao) in purple with an iron walking stick.