Almost 4 million people tune in to watch live drama at theater

The ongoing sixth Lao She Theater Festival, which kicked off in September, launched an online drama feast in late December.

The live broadcast lasted for nearly 10 hours, playing Beijing Quju Opera Longxugou and the three dramas of Teahouse, Mr Ma and Son and Lao She Going to the Market, which all relate to the Beijing-born novelist and playwright Lao She (1899-1966), pseudonym of Shu Qingchun.

As one of the biggest highlights of the event, it attracted more than 3.8 million views and was broadcast live over 10 media outlets. The online event was co-organized by the Beijing Xicheng district bureau of culture and tourism, Beijing Artists Management Corp and Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the naming of Beijing Quju Opera. Lao She created the play Willow Well for the performing art and named it Quju in 1952. Since then, Quju has been the only local opera genre in Beijing.

Longxugou is a three-act play and was recreated to a classic Quju in 1996. It was originally created by Lao She in 1950 and premiered by the Beijing People's Art Theater in 1951.

Known as a milestone in the development of realistic drama in modern China, the play contrasts the lives of residents in a Beijing open drainage ditch called Longxugou before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Before 1949, Longxugou was the largest gutter and a slum in the city where inhabitants suffered amid the increasingly foul conditions. In 1950, the Beijing government carried out a large-scale renovation of Longxugou, the first in its history. They constructed many small light industry factories to make use of the nearby labor force and gave women, who had rarely left their homes, a new social role.

The Teahouse played by the Golden Sail Arts Troupe of Beijing No 166 High School presents a "fresh and tender" taste on the basis of wise thoughts and sophisticated language in Lao She's original work, professionals said. The drama was also played in 2019 to mark the 120th anniversary of the playwright's birth.

Zhu Xueyan, who once played grandma Pang Si in the drama, is now a college student at Beijing Film Academy. Zhu said the play has planted a seed in her heart to learn acting. "I think the most memorable part of the Teahouse is its various characters," she added.

Li Yinghao, who once played Chang Siye in the drama, is currently a student majoring in broadcasting and hosting at Communication University of Zhejiang.

"It is because of the experience of being an actor at the Golden Sail Arts Troupe and performing the Teahouse that I chose the drama club during college. The experience also makes me more determined in the pursuit of art," Li said.

Mr Ma and Son is a long novel that Lao She wrote in the United Kingdom. It was first published in 1931 and produced as a drama by Beijing Artists Management Corp in 2016.

The play won unanimous praise as soon as it was launched, and was welcomed by Macao audiences in 2019 when it was invited to participate in the 30th Macao Arts Festival as the only work in Mandarin.