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April 22, 2016

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Actress-director brings experimental show to life

FOR actress Sun Ningfang, the experimental play “Going to Baidi” is both a family affair and a labor of love. Sun is the star and director of the show, which was written and produced by her husband Jiang Ke. The couple’s nine-year-old daughter also has an on-stage role.

Running now until May 8 at the Arts Salon of the Shanghai Drama Arts Center, this original work also features leading performances from actresses hailing from America and Ghana.

In an interview with Shanghai Daily, the award-winning Sun admitted that it hasn’t been easy doing double-duty on a play that has never been staged before, yet her determination to see the show brought to life helped her through the challenging times.

“This work is like a baby for our whole family, and it’s one that I’m 100-percent committed to staging,” she said.

The show focuses on an impoverished woman who dreams of going to a magical land known as Baidi. As she struggles to reach this utopia, she confronts both painful realities and unimaginable decisions.

According to Sun, the play touches on universal themes of human nature which transcend language and national identity. Indeed, much of the story is told through body language and gesture.

“It’s an experimental work that I hope can touch audiences with only the most simple language, rather than fancy stage feats,” explained Sun.

“Bringing an original work to life isn’t a piece of cake at all. Many suggested that I pick a play I liked and then recreate it. But my final choice was the hardest — doing something new.”

After graduating from Shanghai Theater Academy in 2003, Sun landed numerous stage and television roles. In 2009, she won the Zuolin Drama Arts Award for Best Actress for her performance in “In the Silence.”

Encouraged by this accolade, Sun began to assert herself more behind the scenes. Her first foray, however, met with mixed results.

In 2011, Sun produced and acted in the stage drama “Matsuko’s Love,” based on the Japanese novel “Memories of Matsuko” by Muneki Yamada. Despite lengthy negotiations with the novel’s copyright holders to bring the show to the stage, the production was ultimately marred by accusations that it plagiarized another Japanese drama.

At the time, Sun responded to her critics with a message on her Weibo account saying that her only goal was to “make the dramatic arts more well-known on the Chinese mainland.”

Sun emphasized to Shanghai Daily that her newest work is “one-hundred percent original.”

The germ for “Going to Baidi” grew out of Sun and Jiang’s trip to the Edinburgh Drama Festival in 2014. The story’s outline was written by Jiang, with additional content added during workshops that began last year.

“At the festival, we watched plenty of works featuring many different styles of dramas. We then tried to make a work that was totally different from anything we’d done before — from the content to the form,” Sun says.

She is still unsure how to define the work. Right now, she calls it an “energetic play” thanks to the physicality and emotional investment it requires of its stars. From the moment it starts, the 80-minute show calls for a nearly non-stop routine of jumping, running, shouting and dancing. There’s also musical accompaniment from jazz and African drummers.

“I hope to bring back the essence of theater, without flashy effects and decorations,” says Sun. “We don’t know whether audiences are really catching what we’re saying, but we’re trying. Original Chinese dramas need to be able to explore — to explore all possibilities.”

 

‘Going to Baidi’

(Chinese & English Dialogue / Chinese Surtitles / No Intermission)

Date: Through May 8, 7:30pm (Tuesday-Monday)

Ticket: 180-300 yuan (A limited number of 50 yuan on-site tickets daily, full-time students can enjoy 50-percent discount in assigned seats. )

Tel: 6473-0123, 6473-4567

Venue: Shanghai Drama Arts Center — Drama Salon

Address: 288 Anfu Rd




 

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