WANG SHIFU’S NEW STAGE PLAY BEGINS
“THE ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBERS”
1295 May 16th
By Liana Aleksanyan
Stage Literature
Dadu- It’s the most popular, dramatic love story created so far. People are going crazy for tickets and critics have nothing but good things to say. Coming out on May 16 1295, Wang Shifu’s, “The Romance Of The Western Chambers” is "China's most popular love comedy" and a "lover's bible. Wang Shifu wrote such a good play because Mongols wanted more than just some ordinary puppet shows like everyone else does.
Mongols started these shadow puppet plays. They began as a way to entertain themselves with simple puppet plays. But the Mongols wanted more than just some regular puppets. They wanted the finest entertainment for themselves. Then, provincial leaders came in and hired skilled, professional puppeteers. Mongols also wanted this because they decided they would like to have there own language and cultured puppets. The most prominent members of Dadu’s upper class are buying these expensive ten Yuan tickets. Not only was it in Mongolia that they made puppet plays but in twenty other different countries, including China. After Mongols got into shadow puppets the Han Dynasty got interest into them afterwards.
“Great play, one of the best I have ever seen. I especially like the dramatic scenes,” says Bao Yu, one of the audience members. There have been many good comments about this play. This story is about a boy and girl that fall in love. But the problem is the girl’s mother is strict with boys. And so the boy shows his feelings to the girl only by writing love poems. This shows that it’s greatly liked because it was not something Mongolians always watched.
Wang Shifu said that he has made fourteen plays so far. “We hope they come out soon! Cross your fingers!” Says Shifu. The night the play was over a play critic named Bang said, “ Astonishing! One of the best plays I have ever seen. He might be a big hit!” Seeing that one of the strict critics like his play was a shocker!