The Name

Ibsen Prize，1996

Fosse in China 2012

Production supervisor: Lou Wei

Executive producer: Han Sheng

Artistic supervisor: Sun Huizhu

Written by: Jon Fosse

Producer：Zhang Jun

Director: Liu Ning

Dramaturg, translator: Zou Lulu

Actors: Zhou Minghan, Lv Liang, Wang Su, Gao Yuan, Shen Lei, Ai Jiani

Stage design: Shi Hao

Lighting design: Li Hongye

Costume and make-up: Guan Feng

Sound design: Hu Yunwei

Stage managers: Ma Junfeng, Yu xiuxiu

Print design: Li Xuesong

Photographer: Yang Guang

Produced by: Shanghai Theater Academy

Director’s remarks

This is a play without the traditional plot. The writer simply describes a day’s life of an ordinary family. A pregnant girl Beate went back home with her boyfriend. The event breaks the peace on the surface in the family, and everyone’s life is affected. They are embarrassed, annoyed, trying to communicate but fail. It is the most common slice of life, but the most effective manifestation of our inner world.

THE NAME

For the third time Shanghai Theatre Academy and Ibsen International are cooperating in presenting a play by the famous Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse. The Name is, as the other plays, translated into Chinese by Lulu Zou. The production is also presented in cooperation with the Norwegian Embassy in China and The Norwegian General Consulate in Shanghai and Guangzhou and TTS Group.

It is wonderful to have such a fine team of artists to interpret the story of an estranged family forced to live under one roof. A pregnant girl and the father of the child have nowhere to live and they move into her parents’ house. The parents have never met the father-to-be, and don’t yet know about the pregnancy. The girl doesn’t really want to live there and the boy feels far from welcome.

Fosse gives us a glimpse into a world where the complex emotions that fill a family’s relationships do not come to the surface in everyday life, but a new child, marriage and death often forces the complexity out in the open. When these hidden emotions turn out, they can either redeem the human relationships or destroy them completely. The violent emotions presented in The Name is as much reflected in the not spoken as in everything that is said, as much in silence as in the action between the family members. This is such a basic human reaction between people who should know each other well, but for several reasons have such a difficult time to communicate, so recognizable in Fosse’s universe, whether we are Chinese or Norwegian …..

– Inger Buresund, Artistic and Managing Director Ibsen International

Translator’s remarks

I think we are ready for a new term in theatre—- “Fosse-esque”. The Name is a perfect combination of Chekhov and Beckett, and the still water that runs deep between mundane and poetic.

– Zou Lulu

Cast

Producer：Zhang Jun

Deputy Acting Director of Performance Art Center STA.

He is the producer of more than 30 dramas and musicals and coordinator of more than 10 national or provincial large-scale events. He has worked with many renowned directors from home and abroad, and has productions staged in the National Theatre of Beijing or Shanghai Grand Theatre.

He has also taught many courses on performance management and published many articles.

Director: Liu Ning

He has graduated from Acting Department STA in the year of 1982, and been teaching since then. He is now an associate Professor with the Acting Department, and head of the speech studio. In the 30 years of his teaching, he has nurtured many excellent actors on film and TV screens, such as Tong Dawei, Tian Shui, Ren Chengwei, Song Jia (junior), Feng Shaofeng, etc. His directing works include Xiaojing Lane, Happy Easter, and The Club of Steamed Corn Bread.

Dramaturg, translator: Zou Lulu

Zou Lulu is a published translator and scholar in theatre arts. She is a professor with Shanghai Theatre Academy. Her translation works of dramas, films and other literary works have been published or performed in and outside of China. She has been working with many world-class artists and been highly acclaimed for her excellence and dedication. She is the very first scholar/ translator in China on the study of the contemporary playwright Jon Fosse, one of the greatest living playwrights in contemporary Europe.

Actors: Zhou Minghan, Lv Liang, Wang Su, Gao Yuan, Shen Lei, Ai Jiani

Girl Zhou Minghan

2000 –  undergraduate, Acting Department STA

2004 – teaching, Acting Department STA

2006 – MFA, Acting Department STA

Productions: The life of a woman, Measure for measure, Wind Chimes, Only one woman.

Boy Lv Liang

He has graduated from the Acting Department STA and is now an actor with Shanghai dramatic arts center.

Productions: as Dib Duo in Beneath the red banner, Mental hospital next-door to Heaven, as Chen Kun in More than a lover, as Shen Jiahao in A date with spring, as Zhang Bao in Protein Girl, as Larry in Closer, 50 First Dates, Out of order, the unexpected guest, 12 angry men, Antony and Cleopatra.

Sister Ai Jiani

Undergraduate Grade 08, Acting Department STA

Productions on campus: The thunderstorm, Macbeth, The west chamber, The Club of Steamed Corn Bread.

Commercials: KIRIN beer, Uni-President green tea, tourist promotion feature film for Zhuji

Mother Wang Su

She has graduated from the Acting Department STA in the year of 1986, and been teaching since then. She is now an associate Professor with the speech studio of Acting Department. She has experience of 27 years of teaching, and more than 20 years of dubbing. Her works include 18 springs, Ghost, Sakura Momoko, Ultraman, Bao Qingtian, Ji Gong, Paladin, and Startling by Each Step.

Father Gao Yuan

He has graduated from the Acting Department STA in the year of 1982, and is now an actor with Wuhan People’s Art Theatre.

Bjarne Shen Lei

First-class actor with Shanghai dramatic arts center. Winner of Shanghai Magnolia theatre Performing Award.

Stage design: Shi Hao

Professor with Stage Design department, STA.

Lighting design: Li Hongye

B.A, Grade 06 of lighting design major, STA

Costume and make-up: Guan Feng

B.A, image design major, STA

Now an employee of Performance Art Center STA.