Performance Review: Two Beijing Spoken Drama Comedies Featuring Social Critique Seen in the Summer of 2014

Abstract

In the summer of 2014 I had the chance to see performances of two spoken drama (huaju 話劇) comedies in Beijing: Zhao ge laopo xian yaohao 找個老婆先搖號 (To find a wife, first draw lots), staged by Leizile Xiaogongchang 雷子樂笑工廠 (Leizile laugh factory; a.k.a. Alan’s Studio), and Yangtai 陽台 (Balcony), staged by DaDao Wenhua大道文化 (DaDao culture). Although the two plays used different types of stagecraft and actors, they both investigate similar social issues in contemporary China at the same time that they provide entertainment. Zhao ge laopo xian yaohao can be read as an irreverent parody of Lao She’s老舍 (1899–1966) Beijing-flavored classic Luotuo Xiangzi駱駝祥子 (Rickshaw Boy). In the play a migrant worker named Bei Shangguang 北上廣, riding a bicycle absentmindedly, runs into a car driven by a huge Beijing girl, Gong Linna 宫臨娜. She develops a crush on this migrant worker at first sight, although he is not interested in her at all. As if destined, they encounter again in a library in which he is hiding from his fiancée’s family, and meet a third time yet when they happen to sit next