China News Service, Beijing, September 26 (Reporter Gao Kai) A three-story wooden frame building with gray and white tones stands in the center of the stage. Accompanied by flowing original music, it slowly rotates with the turntable, turning into a "cage" that the Weston family can see but cannot get out of. The hit play "Autumn in Xiaojun", which was premiered by Beijing People's Performing Arts last year, has returned again a few days ago.
"Autumn in the County" is one of the drama masterpieces by American playwright Tracy Letts. It was translated by Lu Yan, directed by Tang Ye and Gong Lijun, and co-starred by Chen Xiaoyi, Gong Lijun, Pu Cunxin, Bai Hui, Liu Hui, Zhang Pei, Yuan Yu, Zou Jian, Li Po and others. After the accumulation and fine polishing of the first round of performances, the play returned to the Caoyu Theater with a more delicate and accurate appearance for the second round of performances.
Talking about the audience's affirmation of the first round of performances, director Tang Ye attributed the success of this play to two points: first, thanks to a good script, and second, the joint efforts of three generations of actors, old, middle and young. "When selecting actors, we focus on the fit between the actors themselves and the characters, and on the accumulation of the actors' own lives, so that they can resonate with the characters. The older the teacher, the more precise the expression. The three artists Chen Xiaoyi, Gong Lijun, and Pu Cunxin have been moving forward with the young and middle-aged actors."
"After the premiere, we invited experts inside and outside the hospital to provide opinions, and also collected feedback from the audience. We will make some fine-tuning based on these suggestions this round." Tang Ye said that the so-called "fine-tuning" refers to areas that may not have been accurate enough in the first round of performances. "For example, the uncle, does he know that his son is actually the child of his brother-in-law? This kind of ambiguity makes the audience feel ambiguous. We are now going to make it clearer."
When talking about the concept of second-round rehearsal, Tang Ye emphasized one word - no repetition. "It's not about repeating what we did last time. First of all, it's impossible to do it 100%. After a year, everyone will have some changes to some extent. The actors bring new life experiences to the characters, and they are also 'looking for' - not looking for differences, but looking for a performance that is more suitable for the role and more accurate."
"The second round will definitely be better than the first round." Chen Xiaoyi, who plays the eldest daughter Barbara, said with certainty. In her opinion, the role of Barbara is not easy. "Barbara seems to be 'fighting' everyone in the play. In fact, she wants to protect her small family and save the big family, but it turns out that she is powerless." High-intensity quarrel scenes and extreme emotional outbursts made her exhausted after every scene. But Chen Xiaoyi firmly believes that "good drama is made through hard work."
Gong Lijun, who plays her mother Violet, believes that this round of rehearsals is an inward exploration - including reflection on the first round of performances and a more accurate grasp of the characters. "After watching the last round of video, I think the performance needs to be more inward. In fact, every performance is different, and the same scene may be handled differently. Sometimes I want to explode, so I shout it out; but sometimes I want to grit my teeth and say this, but I still have to follow the truest inner feelings of the character at the moment."
"A mayfly lives and dies, but its life is complete." Pu Cunxin, who plays his father Beverly, used this sentence to describe his performance in "Autumn in the County". Although there is only the opening ten minutes of the scene, he has been adjusting, striving to establish the character's life in his short appearance.
It is reported that the play will last until October 11 and will serve as the opening performance, kicking off the 2026 Beijing People's Art International Drama Invitational Exhibition.
