Stage play "Qu Yuan" begins performances

 

The new historical drama "Qu Yuan" was performed in Wuhan on March 15. This epic drama features the poet Qu Yuan, one of ancient China’s greatest patriotic poets and politicians.

 

Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC – 278 BC) as a politician, was once the Prime Minister of the State of Chu, his homeland, but was dismissed for calumny. In 278 BC, when Chu was captured by the enemy, he drowned himself in the Miluo River. Qu Yuan was named a “World Cultural Celebrity” by UNESCO in 1953 as the author of the famous poems "Li Sao" (Tales of Woe), "Tian Wen" (Heavenly Questions), "Jiu Zhang" (Nine Pieces) and "Jiu Ge" (Nine Tunes).

 

The stage play condenses more than forty years into a two-hour drama. Flashbacks are used to show the life history of Qu from his 20s to 60s, which is also the history of Chu from its peak to its eventual decline.
 

Huang Weiruo, the scriptwriter, is a famous playwright, professor of drama and literature at the Central Academy of Drama, and doctoral supervisor. His plays have received many major national awards in China.

 

Huang completed the outline of the play in April 2022, the first draft in June, and the third and final draft in September. During his visit to Yichang, Huang witnessed the local people's worship of Qu and their efforts to preserve and pass on his culture. 

 

“So many people gather at the Qu Yuan Poetry Club to write poems and understand Qu from a vernacular perspective. But I have never seen any poet other than Qu leave something so profound in his hometown, among the ordinary people,” Huang said. 

Many great talents participated in the performance. Wang Luoyong, who performed the role of Qu Yuan, once won the Fox Actor's Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Miss Saigon on Broadway in 1999. Hao Ping, who played the role of King of Chu, was most recently known to audiences for his role as Cao Chuang, a police officer in a Chinese TV series "Punch Out”（狂飙). Zheng Xiu is played by Wang Yinan, a national-level actress from the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center.

 

From March 14 to 17, the drama "Qu Yuan" will be performed at the Wuhan Hongshan Auditorium. After that, the play will head to Beijing to participate in the "Outstanding Repertoire Exhibition of Stage Art in the New Era" organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism before taking place in Qu Yuan's hometown of Yichang, and eventually in Hong Kong, Macao and overseas.


Photo by: Song Jinge