Theatre
潘金蓮
Not translated into English
Ouyang Yuqian · 1927
Synopsis
Ouyang Yuqian retells the story of Pan Jinlian, the sister-in-law whom the tradition of the novel held to be a criminal: wife of the itinerant merchant Wu Dalang, she becomes involved with Ximen Qing, who supplies the poison that kills the husband. But the play shows her as a rebellious woman, in love with freedom and a victim of a society made by men, and places her face to face with her brother-in-law Wu Song, who has returned to avenge his brother and question the witnesses.
Context
The play was first performed in December 1927 by Tian Han's Southern Society, in the hall of the Shanghai University of the Arts, during a week of performances; Ouyang Yuqian himself played the title role and Zhou Xinfang that of Wu Song. Tian Han was overwhelmed by the heroine's last line, and the painter Xu Beihong hailed a work that reopened a trial centuries old. The University of Zurich dates it to 1928. It appeared in English in a collective anthology in 1983; no French translation exists.
Who it is for
A brief play drawn from a famous episode of Water Margin; it is better to know the story of Wu Song in order to read it.
Prizes and reception
Hailed from its first staging by Tian Han and Xu Beihong for its reinterpretation of a figure reviled in classical fiction.
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