A scene from Thunderstorm Photo: CFP

Credited as the founding work for modern Chinese stage drama, Thunderstorm, written by dramatist Cao Yu (1910-96) and first published as a script in 1934, has continually held an unassailable position among Chinese dramas. Appearing in high-school textbooks for a period of time many years ago, the play is a must-read textbook for students of stage drama in art colleges. In the history of Chinese stage drama Thunderstorm is considered one of the true classics.

However, a recent embarrassing incident has some questioning whether this 80-year-old work is still relevant; while some are even going so far as to not just question Thunderstorm, but also the current development of Chinese stage drama as well as the overall cultural environment in the country.

From tragedy to comedy

On July 22, Thunderstorm was performed at the Capital Theater by the Beijing People's Art Theatre (BPAT), an institution established in 1952 and widely known for its academic and rigorous spirit towards the art of drama. First presenting Thunderstorm in 1954, BPAT and a group of outstanding directors including Xia Chun and actors including Zheng Rong, Zhu Lin and Yu Shizhi have built the drama into one of BPAT's trump cards over the years.

The performance on that night was aimed at the general public, especially students, who were able to use their student IDs to buy tickets normally worth 80 to 880 yuan ($13-142) for only 10 to 40 yuan. However, as the performance was carried out on stage, much to the surprise of the performers, this classic drama depicting a tragic story taking place in 1920s China ended up provoking more laughter than tears at certain points.

This laughter clearly affected the mood and performance of the actors on stage. As the curtains fell, famous BPAT actor Yang Lixin, who played the leading role of Zhou Puyuan in the drama, told director Gu Wei backstage, "I can't perform this play any more." Yang was so angry that on July 24 he published five consecutive messages on his Sina Weibo expressing his anger and disappointment:

"I thought such a tragic story in the 1920s would touch students who are happily going about their lives today, but I was very surprised when they laughed over and over again as the story unfolded on stage. It was a really disappointing public service performance," Yang wrote.

A classic is a classic

The laughter directed at this esteemed play, caused many to begin to question whether the drama was still palatable to today's younger audiences, and whether it can still be called a classic.

Despite this, for those who watch this play and take the time to learn something about it, they will find that this work has the ability to transcend the boundaries of different eras.

Set in the 1920s, the more than 80,000-character-long script unfolds a tragic story of two sharply different families; one rich and capitalist, and the other poor and servants to the former. However, it is among the much more complicated emotional entanglement between these two families where the play's true value lies.

In the 1950s-60s, when class struggles and conflicts were at their peak, this play was presented as a stage play promoting the campaign against capitalism. During that time, characters like Zhou Puyuan were depicted as the greediest, most irresponsible and ruthless villains ever, while the more humane and self-reflecting side of their nature was downplayed.

Later when the ideology of class conflict was removed, the human struggle between characters ended up becoming the heart of the play, with different generations of directors trying their best to present the rich personalities of the characters.

"Why are we alive?" "How can we live better lives?" "Why do we ignore the suffering of other people?" - For years questions like these have continually popped up in audiences' minds as they watched this drama, trying to seek answers as the play ends with the three young people involved in a love triangle (an incestuous one although they don't know it) dead and two older people going insane.

The drama's strong tension and rich room for interpretation of its plot, in addition to the varied characters has allowed Thunderstorm to be presented on stage again and again over the past 80 years since it was first published, cultivating not just a group of actors that went from nobodies to big stars, but also growing an audience base who originally knew nothing about this Western imported stage art.

Over the years, BPAT has presented three versions of the drama with different generations of directors and actors. In 1954, the first, and for now believed to be the best cast, presented it on stage. With famous director Xia Chun's guidance, the performances of Zheng Rong, playing Zhou Puyuan, Zhu Lin as Shiping (Zhou's abandoned low-born wife) and Yu Shizhi as Zhou Ping (the son of Puyuan and Shiping) became deeply imprinted in the minds of the audience and eventually became regarded as the role model of all later performances of Thunderstorm.

In 1989, the second version was performed for the public. With Xia still the director, new faces like Pu Cunxin, now very famous and the vice president of BPAT, and Gong Lijun joined the cast. The third version, premiering in 2004 and directed by Gu Wei, who played Zhou Puyuan in the second version, was undertaken by actors like Yang Lixin. It is this version that is still performed today.

Despite being the director of the third version, Gu has stated before that he has made little changes to the previous versions since in his mind a classic is a classic, and lines and even some of the out-of-date grammar in the script should not be subjectively changed. For BPAT, full respect for the original classic script is essential and a tradition.

Bridging the gap

However, now it seems that this respect for the classic is not enough if performers want to introduce it to the students of today. Growing up in the Internet era, this generation is constantly bombarded with tons of grotesque news every day, and making light of serious subjects has become something of a social phenomenon for them.

Audience member "jldirac," who watched the performance that night, pointed out that the laughter was mainly due to some lines having "extra" meanings today, and the use of some words were delivered in a very unnatural way.

Given the current environment where practical jokes about serious matters have become part of pop culture, it is quite natural that students would find parts of this play unintentionally funny.

Actually the students involved in this incident are the least to blame here. After all they were just reacting in a natural way to what they were watching. Actually we probably should be thanking them, as they have helped pull the topic of how to bridge the gap between old classics and modernity into the spotlight. The efforts of BPAT to present these classics on stage is admirable, and their sincerity and seriousness are also widely recognized. For them the challenge for future performances will be figuring out a way to take these classic and make them more understandable to today's audiences while at the same time helping younger generations to understand the spirit of what made this work a classic in the first place.