Lin Zhaohua’s Innovation of Huaju Acting in The Master Builder

Abstract

In 2006, an unusual, static production—Lin Zhaohua’s The Master Builder —appeared on the huaju stage. At the beginning of the performance, low lighting from one side of the stage reveals to the audience a minimalist design with only a single red chair and side table in the middle. The stage design is simply a geometric space formed by two white boards set obliquely and clipped together at the back (see f igure 2.1). Throughout, the play is performed in this geometric space, arranged in the center—and down-stage area near the audience. It is not until the very end that the white boards are opened to reveal a steeply towering ladder at the back. In the first scene, Pu Cunxin, playing the builder Solness, lies in the chair and faces the audience. After a short silence, he softly calls: “Kaja,… Kaja,… Why do you always take that shade off when I come?” While he is speaking, the three characters (Kaja, old Brovik, and Ragnar) slowly rise up from the orchestra pit as if Solness’s vocal undertone calls for their emergence. They speak to Solness, and yet he replies in a tone that talks to himself and to the audience instead of having a dialogue with them. The “monologue-like” dialogue continues through the whole performance. Primarily for this reason, the overall impression of the performance seems like a meditative soliloquy by Solness. The unusual effect is heightened by the lack of physical action: Solness never leaves the stage, and most of the time sits on the chair. In Pu’s acting, we perceive neither the detailed characterization of realistic acting nor the essential application of physical movement in nonrealistic acting. Like the stage design, Pu’s acting is minimalistic, reinforcing the static style of the production.