Drama Night Has “Grown Up”

On May 27th, the 18th Drama Night of FELC once again fired the audience of Yunshan Hall on North Campus. On that evening, the Drama Night came to its 18th birthday, presenting four excellent dramas and joined by many distinguished guests, including FANG Fanquan, Vice President of GDUFS; ZHAO Guanyin, Deputy Party Secretary of the School of Finance; WANG Bin, Party Secretary of FELC; Edwin Qiao, Project Manager of China-Britain Business Council; Lynn Wu, Guangzhou Chief Representative of China-Britain Business Council, and numerous professors from the Faculty of English Language and Culture (FELC) and other universities.

 

The School for Scandal---Desires Mingled with Lies

 

Charles and Joseph are brothers but share different characteristics. Charles is kind while Joseph always spreads rumors to his advantages. They both court Maria, the daughter of their guardian, Sir Peter, who has a much younger wife called Lady Teazle. Although Charles and Maria love each other, Sir Peter decides to make a match between Joseph and Maria, for he misunderstands Joseph as the most sentimental man by listening to his cunning words. Joseph has a relationship with Lady Teazle but gladly agrees on this match. In order to be the heir, Joseph even starts a rumor of Charles’ affair with Lady Teazle. Later, all the rumors come into thin air and Joseph loses the trust of Sir Peter. Finally, Charles gets married with Maria happily.

 

Charles proposes to Maria

 

This play is the only comedy out of the four, perfectly building an amusing scene along with ironic effect. The audience were amused particularly by Joseph’s funny postures when he was busy hiding Lady Teazle behind a screen and the same time Sir Peter into a closet. As its theme shows, although Joseph is good at telling rumors to make his attempts, conversely, he is exposed by his lies. Love and hate might be covered with scandals but the truth will finally come to light.

 

Long Day’s Journey into Night---Into Deep Psychological Conflicts

 

With the long sound of a foghorn, the play begins. Mary, who once dreamed of being a nun or a pianist, lives a tortured life after her marriage to Tyrone. Due to the death of her elder son, she suffers angina. In order to relieve her pain, Tyrone asks a charlatan, Dr. Hardy, to treat Mary for he only charges one dollar each time. However, Mary is injected too much morphine and becomes addicted. Gradually, she develops a split personality into White Mary and Black Mary, pressing her, torturing her and tearing her apart. Coming back from the sanatorium, she again begins to inject morphine when she finds out her younger son Edmund has tuberculosis. Since then, her life enters into a fantasy while torturous world. The play ends with Mary disappearing into the thick fog, wearing her white wedding dress, along with the long, sad sound of a foghorn.

 

Black Mary and White Mary

 

The biggest highlight of this play is that Mary was acted by two girls to visualize White Mary and Black Mary, i.e. the spiritual conflicts rooted inside her. The whole setting, especially the thick fog, impressed the audience deeply and aroused the sympathy for Mary’s hard life.

 

Of Mice and Men--- A Dream Farmland in the Heaven

 

In the Great Depression, George and Lennie come to Curley’s farm to earn a living. George is a smart guy who helps Lennie all the time. Lennie is physically strong yet somewhat mentally disabled, but they deeply rely on each other. They come to know Candy on the farm and all of them dream to buy a farmland, working for their own interests. Faced with Curley’s brutal treatment, they still work very hard in order to save money for buying a farmland together. However, all efforts render in vain after Lennie kills Curley’s wife accidently. Lennie runs away and Curley, with his farm workers, chase after, determined to kill him. Finally, George chooses to shoot Lennie to prevent him being mercilessly killed by Curley.

 

Geroge kills Lennie

 

The actor playing Lennie gained rounds of applauses during this play, for he was very the image of the naïve and innocent figure through his vivid gestures and eye expressions, which brought him the best actor award. One more thing worth mentioning was the audience’s voluntary applause for the staff behind the scenes when they were busy moving and placing various props in the darkness, such as double-decked beds and piles of straw in this play.

 

An Inspector Calls---Guilty or Innocent?

 

One night the Birling family receives an unexpected guest, Inspector Goole, who claims to be a newly transferred police inspector. He comes to ask about Eva Smith’s suicide, a girl who once worked in Mr. Birling’s factory. By asking the family questions respectively, the Inspector finds out the truth that every one of the Birling family helps cause the death of Eva. Firstly, Mr. Birling sacks Eva for her asking a three-more-pence pay raise. The daughter, Sheila Birling fakes Eva’s impertinence out of jealousy, resulting her being sacked again. Then, the drunken son, Eric Birling rapes her and gets her pregnant. Helplessly, Eva finally comes to Mrs. Birling, the chairwoman of Women’s Association, for help. However, Mrs. Birling refuses and gives her the last straw. Ridiculously, the Birling couple feels no guilt after knowing the Inspector is false and even totally ignores what they have done to Eva, until the real inspector comes.

 

The Inspector is questioning Sheila Birling

 

What astonished the audience most was the white-painted make-up of the Birling family, symbolizing their masks to hide all guilt.

 

Following the four extraordinary performances, a special award was conferred on Duncan Lees, the Associate Professor of FELC as well as the instructor of all the performers of Drama Night, for his huge contribution to FELC since 2004, particularly establishing the Drama Workshop and bringing more students into the world of Shakespeare.

 

Duncan Lees was given an award

 

Duncan Lees firstly expressed his heartfelt thanks to all the participants in this event and he felt so proud of everyone’s huge advancement during the whole process. Moreover, he very much enjoyed the life at GDUFS, working with many kind and professional colleagues and meeting so many brilliant students, and although he would leave for London this September to begin his PhD, he promised to come back and continue what he would like to do.

 

MAO Sihui, Director of English Language Center of Shantou University, gave comments on the four plays and thought highly of the achievements of every crew.

 

Professor MAO Sihui

 

Such a beautiful and passionate night ended with Of Mice and Men sweeping the board, winning altogether 7 awards.

 

The Best Actress, PANG Jiaying & YANG Manjie

 

The Best Actor, ZHANG Haisong (middle)

 

The Best Director, ZHANG Siya (middle)

 

A Group Photo

 

AWARDS LIST:

Best Female Dubber: ZHOU Nan & HUANG Shiying (, Black Mary & White Mary)

Best Male Dubber: XU Ruipeng (, George)

Best Supporting Actress: XIE Chang (, Mrs. Birling)

Best Supporting Actor: HUANG Qianwu (, Candy)

Best Leading Actress: YANG Manjie & PANG Jiaying (, Black Mary & White Mary)

Best Leading Actor: ZHANG Haisong (, Lennie)

Best Director: ZHANG Siya

 

Best Stage Effect:

Best Adapted Script:

First Prize for Best Play:

Second Prize for Best Play:

Third Prize for Best Play: < an inspector calls> &

 

中文报道：第十八届英文戏剧大赛《人鼠之间》揽七项大奖