THE STORM: FESTIVAL 
雷雨·节日

In January 2020, Yu Theatre re-staged Cao Yu’s masterpiece Thunderstorm in an adapted version titled The Storm: Festival, presented during Lunar New Year at the Baby Grand, Kingston Grand Theatre.

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This adaptation emphasized the concept of “festival.” As Freedom Wei wrote in a WeChat post on November 10, 2019:

“‘Festival’ is both past and future. It is one of the few tender memories of the past, as well as the hope and anticipation for the future. Amid endless suffering and toil, everyone dreams that when the ‘festival’ comes, everything will be better. Here, we give the characters the power of imagination—each of them envisions their own ‘festival,’ resisting the pain, torment, and absurdity of reality.”

 

Artistically, the production experimented with original music for the first time, blending traditional and Western instruments—pipa alongside violin. Thunderstorm: Festival preserved the core themes of Cao Yu’s play, recounting the tragedy of a bourgeois family in the 1920s trapped under feudal shackles. With the innovative use of dual subtitle screens, the production sought to create resonance across time and space.

2020年1月，虞剧社将曹禺的经典之作《雷雨》重新编排，推出改编版本《雷雨·节日》，并于当年春节期间在金斯顿市中心的 Kingston Grand Theatre 小剧场（Baby Grand）上演。该改编着重强调“节日”的概念。

 

Freedom Wei在2019年11月10日微信推文中写到：​

“节日”既是过去，也是未来。它是过去那为数不多温馨柔软的回忆，也是人们对未来的期待与盼望。在日复一日的煎熬和劳作里，每一个人都在想着，只要到了“节日”那天，一切都会好起来。在这里，我们赋予故事里的人物想象的力量，他们每一个人都会想象出一幅“节日“的幻景，用以抵抗现实的苦痛，折磨与荒谬。（Freedom Wei，2019年11月10日微信推文）

 

此次制作在艺术手法上进行了新的尝试，首次加入原创音乐，并以中西合璧的乐器进行伴奏——琵琶与小提琴同台演绎。《雷雨·节日》延续了原作的核心主题，讲述二十世纪二十年代一个笼罩在封建枷锁下的资产阶级家庭的悲剧，首次使用双字幕屏来对剧情进行即时翻译，尝试构建跨越时空的共鸣。