A Doll's House is Henrik Ibsen's most well-known masterpiece. The play has exerted far-reaching impact on the development of Chinese ideology, literature and drama.
LU Xun and HU Shi, two Chinese famous writers, praised Nora's thoughts on the pursuit of personality independence and individual liberation. CAO Yu, TIAN Han and other prestigious Chinese dramatists also felt inspired by the drama. Since "Spring Willow Society of Shanghai" (a drama society) premiered canovaccio A Doll’s House for the first time in 1914, the work stands out as important testimony to the development of Chinese drama history.
The drama is directed by REN Ming, a well-known director of Beijing People's Art Theatre who also directed NCPA drama commissions Wangfujing and Returning Home on a Snowy Night. Except for the necessary abridgements, he left the original unaltered and created a work faithful to it, thus paying homage to Ibsen. The production shifts the focus from the feminist ideas emphasized at the birth of A Doll’s House to the more contemporary issues of marriage and family conflicts, aiming to arouse more contemporary thinking and empathy. Following Jane Eyre, Wangfujing, Returning Home on a Snowy Night, and Massage，it is another well-received NCPA drama with humanistic connotation.
Creative
Presenter: NCPA
Producer: NCPA
Performers: NCPA Drama Ensemble
Executive Presenter: WANG Ning
Artistic Director: XU Xiaozhong
Executive Producer: ZHAO Tiechun
Author: Henrik Johan Ibsen
Director: REN Ming
Set Designer: ZHAO Xiaoyu
Lighting Designer: SUN Nanpu
Costume Designer: WEI Chunyan
Make-up Designer: SUN Aina
Sound Effects Designer: ZHENG Chen
Revival Stage Director: SHEN Liang
Cast
Nora: WANG Yiqing
Helmer: LUO Wei
Nils Krogstad: WANG Haowei
Mrs. Christine Linde: LIU Wenyi
Doctor Rank: YU Mengchao
Helene: WANG Wenjie
Lawyer Helmer is just appointed as the bank manager, and wishes to ride on the crest of success. His wife Nora asks him to help her classmate Christina find a job. Helmer takes the opportunity to fire the disgusting staff Krogstad, and let Cristina succeed him. Unexpectedly a few years ago, in order to cure her husband’s disease, helpless Nora held out on Helmer, forged her father’s signature and borrowed money from Krogstad. She is inadvertently guilty of fraud. Bearing a grudge against Nora, Krogstad threatens Nora with a subpoena. When Helmer looks at Krogstad’s whistle-blowing letter, he flies into a tremendous rage, curses Nora as a “bastard”, “criminal” and “menial”, and sighs that his outlook is doomed. When Krogstad is persuaded by Christina and later quashes the subpoena, Helmer shouts joyfully: “Nora, it is over. I forgive you now.” Yet, Nora refuses to forgive her husband, since she believes he is only concerned about his social status and reputation. With the so-called “love” and “care”, he treats her as a doll, so she dashes away from home forevermore.
REN MingDirector
REN Ming
REN Ming is a stage director and Deputy Dean of Beijing People's Art Theatre, and is also a member of Art Committee of NCPA. He has directed more than 60 drama works, including Beijing Grandpa, South Street & North Yard, Family Album, Sunrise, Lotus, I Love Peaches Blossom, Desire under the Elms, Football Club, The First Intimate Contact, Caring Friends, etc.
YUAN JinhongRevival Stage Director
YUAN Jinhong
A graduate from Department of Director of Central Academy of Drama, YUAN Jinhong is a deputy director for NCPA dramas A Mid-summer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and King Lear, and director for NCPA drama commissions The LEI Family, the Royal Architect and Jane Eyre.
He worked in the Golden Years of CCTV Movie Channel, and in the Giant Sail Film Company of China Writers Publishing Group.
His works include drama Claw Flowers in Full Bloom, Western Fujian opera Out of the Enclosed, 80th Anniversary Gala of Gutian Meeting—Ode To Red Flag, symphonic concert Qin Empire — ZHAO Jiping's and ZHAO Lin's Works concert.
He starred in TV dramas Young Man in the Village Courtyard, Snipe, Task Force of Dongning and wrote the scripts of The Family Man, DI Dao Legend at Minor Western Heaven, etc.
CONG LinAssistant Stage Director
CONG Lin
CONG Lin is a performer of Beijing People's Art Theatre, who has played many roles in more than 60 works such as dramas Thunderstorm, Teahouse, Rickshaw Boy, The No. 1 Restaurant in China, Mutiny, Lotus, Bosom Friends and Sunrise. CONG Lin always follows the creation principle of realism in director's work.
ZHAO XiaoyuSet Designer
ZHAO Xiaoyu
He is currently working at NCPA. He graduated from the Department of Stage Design at the Central Academy of Drama with a major in stage design, and later studied at the School of Film &Television Arts at the Communication University of China for a Master’s degree in film and television editing and directing.
Engaged in television art in his early years, ZHAO Xiaoyu ever acted as art director in over 30 films and TV dramas. His award winning works include the film Broiling Sun (1993) which was granted the FIPRESCI Prize at Montréal World Film Festival in Canada, the film Seventeen Years (1998) which won the Award for Best Film from the Association of Film Artists at the 46th Venice International Film Festival and the film Daunggyi (2002) jointly shot by Chinese and French sides, nominated at Cannes Film Festival in France.
Since the establishment of NCPA in 2007, he has served as set designer or visual director for a number of dramas, such as the large-scale live-action drama A Dream in Red Mansions in Jing’an District, Shanghai, the opera A Village Teacher, the dance drama Silk Road, the award-winning work Frog in the Sino-French Drama Year and the large-scale Miao song and dance drama Niangx Eb Sangb accompanied by Chinese orchestral music. He also took charge of stage design for the grand ceremony marking the completion of Heshi Stupa and enshrinement of Buddha’s finger in Famen Temple, Shaanxi Province.
SUN NanpuLighting Designer
SUN Nanpu
Graduating from the Communication University of China, SUN works at the NCPA. As a lighting designer, he has participated in NCPA productions of operas Turandot, La bohème, The Chinese Orphan, Carmen, Tosca, Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Un Ballo in Maschera, Otello, Nabucco, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Red Guards on Honghu Lake, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, and Norma, dance drama Marco Polo, dramas A Doll's House and Returning Home on a Snowy Night and so on.
WEI ChunyanCostume Designer
WEI Chunyan
As an employee of NCPA, WEI Chunyan graduated from Department of Stage Art of the Central Academy of Drama as a major in style design. She has professional title of national-class intermediate-level stage art designer. She ever served as costume designer of opera L'Elisir d'Amore, drama A Doll’s House, dance drama Sea, Sun, Moon and Stars and concert entitled “Looking for the Most Beautiful Arias - Opera Gala for Children”. She is also costume designer and style designer of dozens of films and TV dramas.
SUN AinaMake-up Designer
SUN Aina
SUN Aina graduated from Stage Art Major of Central Academy of Drama, and obtained Master of Arts in Specialty of Character Image Design. She is a member of the Chinese Artists Association, Professional Committee of the China Film and Television Technology Association, and serves in the China National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Her main costume design works includes: dance dramas Marco Polo, GUAN Gong, A Peking Opera Dream, Hoh Xil Dairy, Woman in that Fall, TANG Wan; dances KONG Yiji and Driven to Revolt; dramas: A Doll’s House and Unscheduled Love Affairs; operas Tosca, Der Fliegende Hollander, Lohengrin, Otello, Nabucco, Love of Tianshan; the musicals Love Life, A Beautiful New World; TV dramas The Wedding March and True Colour.
ZHENG ChenSound Designer
ZHENG Chen
ZHENG Chen is a senior designer and drama director of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre. His main works include Beijing People's Art Theatre dramas Teahouse, Twinkling Lights, Our Jingke, Corn-bread Assembly Hall, Desire under the Elms, etc., NCPA drama commissions Wangfujing, Returning Home on a Snowy Night, Massage, A Doll’s House, etc., and CHEN Peisi’s first drama A Shill. In his career to date, ZHENG Chen has designed over 60 dramas for large and small theatres.
SHEN LiangStage Director
SHEN Liang
SHEN Liang is the Stage Director of National Centre for the Performing Arts. She graduated from the Directing Department of The Central Academy of Drama, and got double bachelor degrees in Chinese Language and Literature, and Theatre Director.
She is the director of NCPA theatrical concert Reflecting & Resounding, director of the NCPA children's opera commission The Fisherman and the Goldfish, the Chinese director of the opening opera Le Roi in the 2008 China and France Exchange Year, director of the 2010 and 2011 anniversary celebration parties of NCPA, chief director of 2012 Beijing Spring Festival Gala, director of Inspirations from Laozi, Inspirations from the Analects of the NCPA version, director of opera Xi Shi (2013 version) , Chinese director of opera Tosca of Chinese three-acts version, co-director of the opera Das Land des Lachelns commissioned by Opera Hong Kong.
She has also been the stage director of dramas including Romances of the Old House, 66, Sisters, Bear, among which Samuel Beckett’s short play Come and Go directed by him was praised as the "best version around the globe". She has also directed concert version operas such as Humen Roar, The Marriage of Figaro, Die Zauberflote and Song of Youth.
Other works she has participated in include La Traviata, Rigoletto, The Chinese Orphan, Aida, Don Pasquale, Rickshaw Boy, The Ballad of Canal, Carmen, Tulou, FANG Zhimin and Sunrise.
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