Chapter 45
Because the attendance of the drama was too low, it was not performed for a while, and the club held a meeting to discuss countermeasures.
Wang Jiazhi said, "I think audiences have seen too much of the past genre and are no longer interested in it. Our goal is to raise funds for charity performances, so as long as we can raise money, the performance doesn't matter. Why not change the subject matter?"
Zhou Minlin said: "I think what Wang Jiazhi said makes sense. Our starting point is good. As long as we achieve our goal and the audience enjoys watching it, what's wrong with that? Why should we be so obsessed with the content of the performance?"
Others also agreed and discussed what kind of performance would be more attractive.
Wang Jiazhi said, "Although these plays are classics, they've been performed so many times that there's nothing new about them. If you want to attract audiences, it's better to choose ones that haven't been performed before. For example, 'Wuthering Heights' and 'La Dame aux Camélias'."
Someone said, "There is a ready-made script for 'La Dame aux Camélias', but there is not for 'Wuthering Heights'."
Wang Jiazhi said, "I've recently been interested in seeing if I can turn Wuthering Heights and Tess of the D'Urbervilles into screenplays. It's impossible to rewrite the entire book, but I could pick out a few key moments and turn them into a one- or two-act play. I just don't know if it would be very effective."
Zhou Minlin said, "It would be great if you're willing to write. You're the best writer among us. Why don't you write it and see if it's good? We can perform it."
After discussion, everyone decided to have Wang Jiazhi be the screenwriter to see how it would perform.
As always, the beginning is difficult. Wang Jiazhi discovered that writing a screenplay is truly different from writing a novel. To avoid wasting time on rehearsals, she worked tirelessly, reading other classic plays while she began writing.
Apart from eating and sleeping, I was writing at my desk. I was back to studying for the exam, and after lights out, I went to the corridor to write.
Xiaoshuang said she was not afraid of the light, but she still insisted on going out. She knew that Xiaoshuang could not sleep in the light.
Xiaoshuang then suggested that they sleep next door at Huangliju's place while she wrote in the dormitory. Wang Jiazhi laughed and said, "Forget about the smell in her room."
After writing like this for half a month, she finally had a scene in the script that she thought was acceptable.
Everyone who watched it said it was great and they planned to start rehearsing.
Wang Jiazhi also became more proficient with practice, and the more she wrote, the easier it became. In another month, she wrote a one-act version of Wuthering Heights and a two-act version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
The busiest people in the club are Zhou Minlin and Wang Jiazhi. Zhou Minlin has to take charge of the overall situation, while Wang Jiazhi attends classes during the day, rehearses with everyone at night, and then goes home to write scripts until dawn.
The premiere was "Wuthering Heights." The heroine, Catherine, was an aristocratic girl, and the hero was adopted by her family at a young age. They were childhood sweethearts and fell in love as adults. However, out of practicality, Catherine married a man of equal social status. This caused the hero great pain, and he left Wuthering Heights. The loss of the hero was deeply agonizing, and although she lived a seemingly peaceful and stable life for many years, she was deeply heartbroken.
A few years later, the hero returns home, having achieved success and fame. However, upon learning that he can no longer be with the heroine, he launches a frenzied revenge against her in-laws. The heroine dies in childbirth, and the hero suffers for 16 years before ultimately committing suicide to follow her.
Wang Jiazhi chose to depict the separation, reunion, death of the heroine, and the emotional entanglement between the next generation, little Catherine and little Linton.
Wang Jiazhi and Zhou Minlin play the male and female protagonists. Because little Catherine and little Linton symbolize the incarnation of the male and female protagonists, and it is also the author's way of making up for the regrets of the two, so these two are also played by them.
When Wang Jiazhi appeared on stage that day in a deep blue dress and with her hair tied up, someone in the audience laughed and said, "Wang Jiazhi really has the face of a dignified and elegant wife."
Another said: "Zhou Minlin usually looks so gentle, but when he plays a psychopath, he really looks like one."
The last scene mainly features little Catherine and little Linton.
The two fell in love at first sight, but due to a misunderstanding, they became a pair of bickering lovers. They said they hated each other, but in reality, neither could let go of the other. In the end, they finally admitted their feelings for each other and lived happily together, the kind that made them sick.
The audience laughed and said, "They really look like a couple when they play each other."
After the curtain fell, the audience responded enthusiastically with deafening cheers and applause.
Everyone was very pleased and excited, and we raised a lot of money.
Several classmates also went backstage to play. One girl said to Wang Jiazhi, "The hero and heroine are so pitiful. They didn't end up together. But the heroine said she loved him before she died. Even after he took revenge, she didn't hate him. They were separated like this. I cried so hard. But then I saw that the two children, like their reincarnations, had a happy ending, which comforted me a little."
Wang Jiazhi said, "I wrote it this way on purpose. Without the couple at the end, it would be too tragic. But they aren't the reincarnations of the two characters at all, just their shadows. Their happiness can't change the tragedy of the hero and heroine in the slightest."
"Don't say it anymore, you're going to be sad again."
On the way back, Xiao Shuang held Wang Jiazhi's hand and said, "When I first read this book, what hurt me most wasn't that the two people couldn't be together and died. It was... I felt it wasn't worth it."
Wang Jiazhi said, "You mean, they didn't..."
"That's right. They loved each other so deeply. The heroine had a child with another man, and he had a child with another woman. That's fine. They loved each other so much that they could die for each other. But in the end, they never slept together once. What a pity."
“That’s indeed the truth.”
"Right."
Although love and sex are completely unrelated, it is really a pity to think that two people can love each other madly, but in the end they only get each other's heart and not the body.
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