Curator: Tan Zeen
Name: Shaoxing Opera “Unrestrained Song of the Green Rattan”
Stage Design: Ni Fang
Time of premiere: December 3, 2019
Scriptwriters: Yu Qingfeng
Director: Han Jianying
Stage Design: Ni Fang
Lighting Design: Nie Jianguo
Costume Design: Qin Wenbao
Shaoxing Opera “Unrestrained Song of the Green Rattan”
An old rattan, standing at the stage center lonely yet extending upward vigorously, materializes the image of Xu Wei, who was a great splash-ink calligrapher and painter leading a solitary and wretched life. The wrath-ridden rattan with twisted roots and gnarled branches spreading wildly also serves as the externalization of Xu Wei’s unrestrained and defiant spirit against the fate. The performance behind three-sided movable white cloth is visualized and symbolized, which constitutes comparison and contrast regarding time, space and mentality against the performance in the front of the stage. Consequently, the world laden with demons and illusions is constructed that drove Xu Wei into quasi-insanity.
Ni Fang
Working for Zhejiang Xiao Bai Hua Yue Opera Troupe, Ni Fang is a State Class I Stage Designer and a council member of China Institute of Stage Design.
His main works include Kunqu Opera Four Famous Plays by Tang Xianzu, Macbeth, Peony Pavilion, Notre Dame de Paris, Yue Musical Jane Eyre, Peking Opera Story of Embroidery Ladies, Wu Opera Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, Huai Opera Dawn of Spring, Hainan Opera Madam Xian, Hui Opera Bao Zheng, Huangmei Opera Novel Blessing, Sixian Opera Wei Zheng, Shaoxing Opera Yu Qian, Drama Red Boat, Opera the Red Guards on the Honghu Lake and etc.
His works have been displayed in main exhibitions including WSD 2009 (World Stage Design 2009), WSD 2013 (the online exhibition of WSD 2013), the Third Chinese Stage Design Exhibition 2015, 2016 Nine Nominated Young Chinese Avant-garde Drama Designers Exhibition Wuzhen by CISD, WSD 2017, the 14th PQ2019 (Prague Quadrennial), Stage Art Design Invitational Exhibition Beijing 2019, and the 3rd Tbilisi International Biennale of Stage Design 2020. Ni Fang has won Society Award granted by China Institute of Stage Design twice and has also received national awards for outstanding stage design for a number of times.