Burnt offerings
- Source: Global Times
- [20:33 March 17 2011]
- Comments
Poster of play Burnt by the Sun.
By Jiang Yuxia
When watching the play Burnt by the Sun in London in 2009, Chinese theater director Wang Xiaoying felt a resonance in his heart: a play interwoven with politics and the heroes' dramatic fate, against a backdrop of Stalinist rule, Burnt by the Sun starts out like something by Chekhov but ends up a gripping thriller.
Before the play was even over, he had already bought the rights and since then has been pondering over how to put the story on stage. The play, directed by Howard Davies and adapted by British playwright Peter Flannery, from Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov's 1994 Oscar-winning film of the same title, won critical acclaim with Michael Coveney of the Independent lauded it for "performing the miracle of re-releasing a film [and] not reducing it, as theatre."
The reason he was moved was largely because of "what I have experienced and my understanding and reflections on life,"
Wang told the Global Times. "In the play, I do not mean to hint at any history of a certain country because the story does not talk about the political and social scene directly; rather, it talks about how people get involved in a political campaign against a background," explained the director, who has directed a number of acclaimed plays including The Salem Witch, Copenhagen, The Death and the Maiden.
"Everyone has his or her own life [and] cultural background. When one is involved in it, he then becomes a victim of the age that is what the play is really about," he added.
Now only a month ahead of its premier at the Capital Theater in Beijing, Wang is busying himself rehearsing,trying to give it a Chinese perspective. With a new, Chinese title Shen Du Zhuo Shang (literally "Burnt Deeply"), he wishes to go beyond the physical injury caused by scorching and probe further into the harm the soul suffers.
"Political campaigning in peacetime is like a battleground without gunfire. Everyone might win or lose on such a battleground. But the memories about the 'war' are deep in their heart, no matter if you see them or not, they are right there," he explained.
