Stage play based on film classic 'Spring in a Small Town' premieres in Hong Kong
Theme of human frailties and values in turbulent times still relevant, Beijing director says as he offers tribute to late filmmaker Fei Mu
A stage adaptation of a classic film from old Shanghai will premiere in the city tonight, retelling a human story that is just as relevant on the mainland today - and in Hong Kong.
With just five actors and actresses, the 1948 film, Spring in a Small Town, portrays the dilemma and conflict faced by intellectuals in post-war China.
It was the last work of Shanghai director Fei Mu, who died in 1950 shortly after moving to Hong Kong. Fei did not get recognition for the movie until 2005, when the Hong Kong Film Awards Association ranked it No1 on its list of the best 100 Chinese films.
Now, the city has been chosen to host the world premiere of the stage version, which features an all-mainland cast and crew, over three days this weekend at the Grand Theatre of the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui.
"The film was made some 60 years ago, but its relevance is no less for us," Beijing director Li Liuyi, 54, said on the eve of the first performance. "Through the stage, I hope more will come to appreciate the anxiety and pain the Chinese were confronting then as much as we are confronting now, which is the same."
On the mainland, everything happens at speed and with much hullabaloo, and genuine human elements are lost in the process
Li, a native of Chengdu , Sichuan , is no stranger to staging shows in Hong Kong. The current adaptation is the work of a top cast from his team at the Beijing People's Art Theatre and the National Theatre of China.