Play gives insight into world of the blind

A stage version of writer Bi Feiyu's award-winning novel Tuina, or Massage, is on at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing until Sept 14. Provided to China Daily

In the world of the blind, trust is hard to build and incredibly easy to lose. A trivial mistake, which would be of no consequence to sighted people, could cause the visually impaired a devastating crush of inner peace and a sudden collapse of intimacy.

That's what writer Bi Feiyu's Mao Dun Award-winning novel Tuina, or Massage, explores. In the tangle of relationships in a massage house, blind masseurs try to find love, power and dignity, only to find their lives an unorthodox challenge.

The dramatic tension of the novel has attracted many directors to adapt the story for stage and screen. A TV serial of the same name has just finished screening. A movie by avant-garde director Lou Ye is underway. Now a stage play is set to tackle the work.

"TV serials and movies are better at visualizing a life with lots of details. But the traditional charm of stage is to amplify the emotions and resonate with the audience in an overwhelming way," says the play's director Guo Xiaonan.

A stage version of writer Bi Feiyu's award-winning novel Tuina, or Massage, is on at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing until Sept 14. Provided to China Daily

Having directed a Chinese opera version of Junichiro Tanizaki's A Portrait of Shunkin and with a play about blind artist Abing high on his agenda, Guo says he is no stranger to directing blind scenes. But it's still a challenge for him to direct nearly a full cast of blind characters.

No technical help was used. The actors were asked at the beginning of the rehearsal to keep their eyes tightly shut. They were trained as if they were really blind with the help of teachers from schools for blind children. They were taught to judge direction by the perception of light and then move around by measuring the stage with their steps.

"My character wears sunglasses in the play, so I have the chance to open my eyes once in a while without being seen. But after I open them, everything goes wrong," says Liu Xiaofeng, the lead actor.

"In the darkness, voices and even breath are the guide, and in this way I get to truly feel the inner world of blind people. So in order to maintain a stable state, I have to always close my eyes and find the right tempo of acting by only feeling."

The actors have done more than just close their eyes and stumble along, Guo says. They roll their eyes, squeeze their eyebrows and move their mouth, all in an acquired manner so as to resemble the look of the blind.

"But a similar look is not the most important thing. You have to convince the audience that you are a blind man by acting out his inner feelings. If you successfully do so, the audience won't even care if you have shut eyes or not," Guo says.

"It is of utmost importance whether the actors can render onstage the blind masseurs' spiritual life. That's what I am looking for, to reveal their self-esteem, self-abasement, extreme personalities and so on."