A Snowy Path– the First Original English Musical Play

On Monday nightat 7 sharp, June 13th, the first original English musical play on our campus –A Snowy Path– was staged in the Lecture Hall of the Sixth Teaching Building, presenting to its audience an impeccable musical performance.

The play was launched by the cooperation of the Youth League Committee and the Arts Organization in commemoration of the great feminist author Charlotte Bronte and her renowned novel Jane Eyre. From the perspective of a female, the play presented to us a series of gripping scenes in a bitter cold world. The protagonist was a young lady who had suffered from the stress from life and who wanted to escape from the real world. One day, she accidentally found a way towards an unknown icy world, where what she had experienced she never thought possible…

Intro & Scene One: A Girl’s Monologue & Rose Garden

“I cannot breathe! I feel uneasy, all day and night.” “Therefore, sometimes, I want to go and hide in a secret garden where no one can find me.” Estranged by her friends and tired of the current surroundings, a girl seemed lonely and hopeless, lying in the rose garden, where only a rose provided her company and comfort. The instrumental music and the song of the protagonist, together with the lights and setting, hit the audience with a brilliant first blow.

Scene Two: Wolves

A hungry she-wolf and her two baby-wolves longed for devouring the girl, but refused to eat her directly because she seemed so weak– the creepy mindset of having fun with the prey before feeding on it, perhaps. The conversations in this scene were both amusing and horrifying. To sum up, the wolves’ impressive howls and the vivid movement successfully kept the audience spellbound.

Scene Three: Ice

Despite the somewhat strange costumes and marks, the ice-men scene was as splendid as the former one, but in a different way. Living in a cold world their entire lives, the ice-men had never seen a plant before and the wilted rose in the hand of the girl was the first they had ever witnessed. In this scene, the girl started to realize her rude manners and vowedto make a change.

Scenes Four & Five: Squirrels & the Log Cabin

These two scenes were indeed the most entertaining of all, dispelling all the anxiety of the previous two scenes. The detailed interaction of the old spouse, the funny acting of the squirrels and the lovely disposition of the protagonist brought the audience back to the classic Disney fairytale Snow White.

Scene Five: Witch’s Palace

The confrontation with the witch, the powerful ruler of the cold world, was the belly of the whale for the girl. At the end of the story, to our relief, the girl conquered her fear of the witch and retained the warmth of the whole world. “The frigid land will be thawed and one day there will be roses again.” Apart from the plot, the duet between the girl and the witch in this scene was another highlight.

Drama: As Long as you are Safe and Sound

After the riveting rendition of the musical play, the drama night gave out an extra bonus – a modern award-winning drama called Anhaoqingtian (安好晴天), which conveyed the message that modern people lack the drive of belief, by performingthe famous stories of LIN Huiyin, a distinguished Chinese architect and poet. The heart-and-soul rendition of the amusing performers, the shift between the virtual world and the reality, and the sense of contemporary world all glued the audience to their seats.

It was indeed a night of immense enjoyment.

中文报道：第六届话剧之夜上演原创戏剧盛宴