Review On Yao Yiwei's Theatre Work

Yao Yiwei is a leading figure in the field of Taiwan's modern theatre,he took the lead in creating theatres that are distinctive from the official color against the historical background of prevailing "anti-communist literature","battle of literature and art" advocates,he was highly regarded as “the mentor of theatre'' in his generation.After a systematic exploration of Yao's 30-year literary career,we will be able to fully understand the generation and evolution process of his literary thought and literary expression.From a four-dimensional perspective,and center around Yao's literary work and theory,the theatre characteristics and literary idea that are integrated with “tradition and the west,classical and modern” is discussed in this study.The study is divided into four chapters,in which the four-dimension perspective is detailedly analyzed one by one.The subject of the first chapter is “Yao Yiwei and Chinese theatre tradition”,in this chapter,after combination of Yao's Zuo Bo Tao and his relative review articles about Peking Opera,his practice of Peking Opera and unique innovative theory about Peking Opera is discussed.In the 1970 s,Taiwan literacy circle witnessed a boom of native literature,which advocated that literacy should focus on native land and reality,in response to this literary trend,the theatre creators claimed to renovate the Peking Opera after inherit it,aimed at activating the vitality of Peking Opera.Zuo Bo Tao,Yao's only Peking Opera script,was created under such a historical background,besides,he also wrote many review articles regarding the innovation in Peking Opera in the same period.The subject of Chapter II is “Yao and Western Modernist Traditions”,which mainly cover two aspects: the first aspect is about studying the dramatic features reflected in Yao's One Carton;in the second aspect,by analyzing Yao's different attitudes towards modernism in different historical stages,we can understand how modernism affected his whole literary career.The subject of Chapter III is “Yao and Modern Chinese Literary Traditions”,which mainly covers two aspects: the first aspect is to investigate the generation process of Yao's literary thought,compare his Red Nose with the characters created by Luxun,and explore the impact of Luxun's literary thought on Yao;In the other aspect,elaborate Yao's relation with some literary traditions like “May 4”,“For life”.The subject of Chapter IV is “Yao and Western Classical Theatre Tradition”,in this chapter,the relation between Yao and Shakespeare's plays in two aspects: in one aspect,compare the similarities and differences between Yao's Shen Sheng and Shakespeare's Macbeth;the second aspect is to appreciate Yao's review articles about Shakespeare's plays.According to the analysis based on the two aspects,it can be concluded that Shakespeare's plays imposed a significant impact on Yao's theatre creation and theory formulation.Though Yao used western modernism literary tradition and western classical literary tradition for reference when creating theatre and formulating theory to some extent,however,after analysis and research,the writer found both Yao's literary work and literary thought reflect our traditional and native spirit,throughout his literary career,we can see he had been making unremitting efforts in pursuit of the prosperity of Chinese literature.