Entertainment

French director's dramas duel on opposing stages

By Han Bingbin (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-10 08:02

Being on your own can be beautiful. Imagine sitting on a sunny balcony, cigarette in hand, reading a book by Marguerite Duras as some cool jazz plays in the background.

You thought you were lonely but in those moments you were actually satisfied; alone but not lonely. When people say how much they have enjoyed loneliness, they have probably not been lonely at all.

More often than not, loneliness is a bitter experience. Take a former steel worker called Georges. He felt lost after he retired. Instead of enjoying what might have been a quiet country life, Georges ended up locking himself in a small studio pounding at steel all day in a useless attempt to resume his old way of life.

When his wife brought him a birthday cake, Georges was suddenly upset. Nothing reminds you of harsh realities more than your advancing age.

Another steel worker, Andre, was promoted to the position of a technician. While a better life lay ahead, the factory suddenly had to make way for a Smurf theme park. Andre had to retire early.

Also feeling unaccustomed to a quiet life in the country, he did not confine himself to a small space but chose something much larger. Andre became obsessively interested in the universe and human evolution. He resorted to something unreachable and abstract to try to forget the miseries brought by ruthless reality.

Both are stories from the French stage. The former, called Loin d'Hagondange ("Leaving d'Hagondage"), tells the story of Frenchman Georges dealing with retirement in the industrial era before the 1970s. The latter, Faire Bleu ("Creating Blue"), deals with the confusion Andre felt as France turned from an industrial era to the age of electronics and mass entertainment. Renowned French contemporary playwright Jean-Paul Wenzel wrote both stories in 1976 and 2000.

Although set 25 years apart, the stories are connected: Andre is Georges' son and both stories happen in the same country villa. The form and details of the two lives might differ, but the significance is the same: when society seems to become younger and more energetic, people who are older will inevitably be left behind. How would you deal with that loneliness?

Although each protagonist deals with his loneliness in an extreme way, Wenzel refuses to define the stories as tragedies because both plays have humorous moments: the funny images Andre presents while imitating gorillas during his study of human evolution, and the bittersweet life his wife Lucie experiences while being ignored by her almost insane husband. As she says to him: "You can't turn me away like switching a TV channel."

"Humans are born with a sense of optimism and that's what I want to present in the plays," Wenzel said. "It's natural to feel lonely because aging is inevitable. The fear and loneliness based on the feeling of being abandoned by society come at various times in people's lives."

To show this process of change, Wenzel will present the two plays in a new way in Beijing. Both will be presented at the same time. Two groups of actors will take turns to perform on different sides of the stage. Although there is no obvious interaction between the plays, they resonate emotionally.

A bed in the middle of the stage, which is the only thing that has not changed in the villa over the years, symbolizes the fact that the lives of two generations have come to the same end.

Wenzel got the idea for this unusual staging after reflecting on modern China. "Loin d'Hagondage was about France's old industrial age, while Faire Bleu was about the electronic age. However, China has seen the coexistence of both ages. The old hasn't gone but the new has already come, which is very interesting."

In Beijing, Chinese actors Han Tongsheng and Feng Xianzhen will play Andre and Lucie, while Wenzel and Francoise Lepoix will play Andre's parents.

Wenzel told METRO he was stunned by the riveting performances of the two Chinese actors. And working with this much-respected French playwright (also director, actor and drama educator) has thrilled Han and Feng.

"He wrote Loin d'Hagondange at the age of 26, and the play is so powerful and profound," Han said. "It's unbelievable. He must have been a very keen observer of old people. His profound reflections on life are something young Chinese directors cannot match. And China doesn't really have any people who can write, direct and act. We haven't had many realistic plays in recent years, let alone such profound ones."

Han said Wenzel is different from many directors he has worked with in that he does not dictate a style to the actors but allows them to reveal ways of performing the roles.

"He's also very smart and sensitive," Feng added. "Because this is his own work, even if he doesn't understand Chinese, he always knows exactly where we are by figuring out our emotional flow."

With his plays about to open in Beijing, Wenzel said he felt a mixture of "anxiety and anticipation", because he sees the show as a "genuine form of cultural exchange". He's also started planning the next step.

"I hope one day I can bring this joint presentation to France," he said. "Or one day we'll put on a Chinese play, part of which will be played by Chinese actors and the rest by their French peers. That would be very interesting."

China Daily

(China Daily 05/10/2011)