On August 12^th, A Lifelong Journey, a drama adapted from a novel authored by LIANG Xiaosheng that has won the MAO Dun Literature Award, will be staged to kick off the NCPA Theatre Festival 2022. The drama A Lifelong Journey, directed by drama director YANG Jiayin, features outstanding artists including MIAO Chi and LI Xiaomeng. The three-hour hearty and touching performance epitomises the essence of the original work, which contains more than a million Chinese characters, paying tribute to every ordinary but a great person in the development of the times.

In 2017, LIANG Xiaosheng’s full-length novel A Lifelong Journey, which had taken eight years to write, was published. This masterwork, containing 1.15 million Chinese characters, describes the different fates of the ZHOU Family’s three children, who grow up in “Guangzipian”. They take a lifelong journey in the name of family. The drama reveals how ordinary families struggle tenaciously and keep high spirits in frustrations, depicting a group portrait of Chinese people spanning 50 years. In 2019, the three-volume full-length novel A Lifelong Journey won the 10^th MAO Dun Literature Award with the largest number of votes. The drama adapted from the novel has been boasting a first-class Chinese creative team and cast. In terms of the script, the playwright YUAN Bin builds it out of multiple dispersal points, space-time points and paragraphs, forming a greater dramatic conflict within a limited performing time. YANG Jiayin, a winner of the China Drama Culture Gold Award, is director of the drama. At the early stage of the production, the creatives held a number of discussions on how to present this masterpiece authentically within three hours. On the stage of the drama A Lifelong Journey, multiple performance spaces are arranged abreast while lighting and set are used flexibly, making time and space foldable, so that the scene changes more smoothly along a clear storyline.

The drama A Lifelong Journey is set in a period from the 1970s to the present, covering major events and changes that have occurred one after another in the Chinese society over the past 50 years. The story unfolds in the life experiences of the ZHOU Family’s children. The ZHOU Family has witnessed the ups and downs of life for half a century. They love and hate “Guang Zi Pian” just like their bitter and romantic love. No matter how the social context and destiny change, members of ZHOU Family always forge ahead as ordinary Chinese with passions and kindness.

In this round of performances, MIAO Chi, an actor from the Beijing People’s Art Theatre, will play ZHOU Bingkun in the drama. He once portrayed TANG Xiangyang, one of the “Six Young Gentlemen” in the TV drama A Lifelong Journey. LI Xiaomeng will fully interpret the life of ZHENG Juan, a woman who always suffers in silence. Besides, SUN Xing and LI Zhen, a national first-class actor and actress from the Beijing People’s Art Theatre, will affectionately portray the father and mother of the ZHOU Family.

Press conference of drama A Lifelong Journey

The performance will run until August 14^th. From August 18^th to 21^st, Interrupted Dream, part of a trilogy starring CHEN Peisi, produced by DaDao Culture, will be staged to present more pleasant surprises at the NCPA Theatre Festival 2022.