Children's theater

Classical literature being adapted into stage productions is not an unconventional practice, but when done from the perspective of children, they might bring a sense of novelty and freshness.

Flowers in the Mirror, a fantasy novel written by Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) novelist Li Ruzhen, was recently adapted into a stage play performed entirely by children and premiered in Beijing on Jan 13.

The stage production added a sense of fairy-tale enchantment to the original text. The protagonist is meant to be a flower fairy, who descends to the mortal world as the fisher girl Tang Xiaoshan. Tang then goes on a series of Gulliverian adventures with her uncle Lin Zhiyang in search of the lost flowers.

The play is coproduced by Qfun Theater, a troupe dedicated to children's theater education in China since 2013, and Hybridites France-Chine, an organization founded in France that promotes France-China artistic exchanges.

In recent years, Qfun Theater has been producing stage works adapted from classical Chinese literature, but seen from the viewpoint of children, with one or two original productions each year.

Members from the Compagnie Philippe Genty, a French troupe specializing in theater puppetry and visual arts, joined in the production as art advisers. They helped realize some of the more surreal aspects of the scenery and plot through puppetry and new media techniques, for example, by designing a giant puppet controlled by several of the children to portray the character of the flower fairy.

Zhao Miao, co-director of the play, had collaborated with the Compagnie Philippe Genty in 2020 in the production of A Life on the Silk Road, which tells the story of Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) diplomat Zhang Qian's journey exploring the ancient trade route.

"I like productions about journeys. I think these stories seem to be exploring the outside world, but they are actually investigating one's inner self and about one's personal growth. It's very interesting to see Tang arriving in new countries, not knowing who she'll meet, what she'll encounter and how she'll deal with these new circumstances," Zhao says.

"At our first rehearsal, I addressed the children as 'dear actors'. I found that they were devoted to this project with utmost seriousness and commitment. By giving them responsibilities, we can allow the children to discover their own motivation, so they can support and complement one another as a team, which is very important."

The child actors were gathered at a training camp last August, which provided them with a range of courses including traditional Chinese opera, stilts, puppetry, body shaping and vocal training.

In the camp, they were placed in diverse acting scenarios, gathering inspiration and designing the local customs for the dozens of countries in the book. Some of the ideas were adopted for the final production.

One of the countries in the play has local people who stand on clouds of different colors, and the tutor Liu Mingpeng assigned the children the task of acting out the colors for the other teams to guess.

The team for "red" designed a short scene about firefighting and invited Liu to perform as the fire, but instead of water, it was red apples that came out of the hoses.

"Usually it's the teachers who design the characters and the plots, but this exercise was filled with uncontrollable, unimaginable and whimsical plot twists. To interact and communicate with the children during the process, and enter their world of imagination, was a wonderful and unforgettable experience," Liu says.

"This state of devotion and concentration is the best acting. We are not teaching the children to imitate, but to inspire and guide them to discover themselves."

Fan Xiaofan, a child actress in the play, says: "Each of the countries in the play has different characteristics, which are the reflections of human nature. We are presenting these diverse sides of human nature to the audience in a lighthearted way. Apart from being an adventure, it is also a girl's coming-of-age story."