聚焦 | 和平饭店 经典重温

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上海纽约大学师生将英国剧作家Noel Coward的喜剧《私人生活》，搬上上海的舞台，而演出地点和平饭店，正是剧作家1930年下榻和撰写《私人生活》初稿的酒店。

12月3日、10日两日，在和平饭店怀旧装饰的茉莉酒廊，《私人生活》舞台剧在下午茶时段开演，两对再婚夫妇巧遇各自前任伴侣，爱恨交织的情感大战，将宾客带回上世纪30年代东方之都的人情百态。

“在和平饭店演出这部剧，有着双重意义，”上海纽约大学艺术助理教授Dianna Heldman说，“首先，Noel Coward是住在和平酒店时写下这部剧作的；其次，作品背景正是剧作家当时所处的时代。保存完好的茉莉酒廊，是上演这部剧的最佳场所。”

“我们加入钢琴演奏，不仅是因为原作里有《总有一天我会找到你》（Someday I'll Find You）这首歌，更是因为我们所用的这架钢琴，是Noel Coward入住和平饭店时用过的。可以说，通过这次演出，我们让Noel Coward重返和平饭店，”Heldman教授说。

舞台剧由上海纽约大学戏剧艺术教授James P Mirrione导演，获得纽约大学艺术委员会的支持。演出阵容包括五位专业演员，他们大多是上海戏剧学院毕业生。此外，上海纽约大学的五位学生也参与演出。

上海纽约大学2018届学生姚凯萱以曼妙歌声献唱经典曲目《夜上海》，她还穿插演唱了Noel Coward创作的一些曲目。

对上世纪30年代上海戏剧及时代背景进行研究后，Mirrione教授戏剧课的学生，以配角身份参与此次演出。演出一开始，他们扮演的各界名流走进茉莉酒廊与观众交谈。纽约大学帝势艺术学院校友Justin Scholar在开场演奏了古筝。

  Noel Coward’s Private Lives  

adapted for Chinese stage

NYU Shanghai faculty and students have helped bring Noel Coward’s comedy Private Lives to the Shanghai stage, with two performances at the Fairmont Peace Hotel — the very location the playwright penned the story in 1930.

The play was incorporated into a special tea dance event at the hotel’s art deco Jasmine Lounge on December 3 and 10, with ballroom dancers and a pianist adding to the 1930s glamor.

"The concept of performing this work at the Peace Hotel is two-fold,” said Dianna Heldman, affiliate assistant arts professor at NYU Shanghai. “Primarily because this is where Noel Coward lived and where he wrote the play, and also because his works were contemporary, set in his time, the beautifully maintained art deco lounge serves as the perfect setting for the work.”

“We included piano music because not only was Someday I'll Find You included in the original work, the piano we used was the very one he played while there,” she added. “In essence, we brought Noel Coward back to the Peace Hotel.”

Directed by NYU Shanghai dramatic arts professor James P Mirrione and supported by a grant from the New York University Arts Council, the cast brought together five professional actors, many of them graduates of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, as well as five students from NYU Shanghai.

The play opened with a rendition of the classic Chinese song “Oh Shanghai” by Claire (Kaixuan) Yao ‘18, who also performed several other songs written by Noel Coward.

After researching the play and the environment of 1930s Shanghai, students from Mirrione’s theater class Ensemble: Private Lives, also contributed to the staging of the event, emerging as ancillary characters from 1930s Shanghai, who greeted audience members as they entered the Peace Hotel’s Jasmine Lounge for the show. Introductory music was also provided by NYU Tisch School of the Arts alumnus Justin Scholar, who played the guzheng.