Chapter 52 The second section calls for the ideal public servant of the people: "If I am real"

The six arch play "If I'm Real" 1 was written in the summer of 1979.At that time, there was an incident in Shanghai in which a scammer pretended to be the son of a high-ranking official. After the scammer was brought to justice, his behavior was widely circulated among the people, and it turned into social indignation against the cadres' abuse of power for personal gain and other unhealthy practices.The playwright Sha Yexin and others took this incident as the trigger point for creation, compiled the script on the basis of artistic fiction and processing, and published it in the "Drama Art" magazine. Several revisions were made.Later, "internal performances" were held in Shanghai and Beijing, that is, performances were performed among selected audiences, and soon they were performed in many cities across the country, accompanied by fierce debates. had a great impact.

The basic plot of the play is like this.Li Xiaozhang, a farm educated youth, could have been transferred back to the city according to the policy, but his place was crowded out by some cadres' children.Li's girlfriend has returned to the city to work as a worker and is pregnant, but their marriage is opposed by the woman's parents because Li cannot return to the city.When Li was anxious and helpless, he accidentally heard the conversation between the head of the repertory troupe Zhao, the director of the Cultural Bureau Sun, and the director of the organization department Qian at the entrance of the theater, so he pretended to be Zhang Xiaoli, the son of "Mr. Zhang" of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and quickly obtained the above three trust.Because Director Qian's husband, Wu, the secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, and "Mr. Zhang" were old comrades-in-arms, "Zhang Xiaoli" lived in Wu's house.Since Zhao, Qian, Sun, and Wu all turned to Mr. Zhang, they were very enthusiastic about his proposal to transfer their "friend Li Xiaozhang" back from the farm. Later, the head of the farm Zheng reported the incident to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and "Mr. Zhang" went to investigate in person and exposed Li's scam.Lee told the court: "My fault was that I was a fake, and if I was real, everything I did would be legal.

This is a wonderful social satire. Through the process of Li Xiaozhang's deceit and being exposed, the playwright ruthlessly analyzes and ridicules the privilege phenomenon existing among cadres, which reflects the playwright's excellent comedy talent.The writer achieves a strong ironic effect through a series of plot arrangements, dramatic means and character language.For example, although Li Xiaozhang intended to cheat at the beginning, he didn't have a complete plan, and he didn't even immediately think of using fraud to achieve the purpose of being transferred from the farm to the city. At first, he just cheated to get two theater tickets.But once he starts to act, his deceptions will succeed again and again, and it seems that it is easy, more than careful planning, as long as the boat is pushed along, the key is that he has mastered the weaknesses of the privileged class and their communication principles and communication language , This not only reflects the fact that special privileges in the real society are a common phenomenon, but also sharply reveals the harmfulness of corruption within the party that uses power for personal gain and uses each other.The author also designed some wonderful details to enhance the effect of irony and comedy. A bottle of fake Moutai brewed by Li Xiaozhang went through this privileged circle several times, and finally returned to his hands.The design of this detail not only conforms to the classic norms of realist drama props setting, that is, a prop should carry out the plot from beginning to end, but also endows the props with ingenious symbolic meaning. It can be said that this bottle of fake wine is the communication norms, communication language and communication language of privileged people. A concentrated expression of the essence of communication, which condenses rich comedy factors and irony.In addition, the script also allows Li Xiaozhang to defend himself in court after the deception is exposed. His defense statement "If I am real" expresses the essence of the phenomenon of social privilege, and its "undeniable" is more important. Added irony to the script.

Although the play "If I'm Real" is a social satire, it just "destroys worthless things for people to see", but the playwright's intention is obviously more than that.A passage quoted at the beginning of the play can clearly indicate the author's intention in this play, which is quoted from the words of the Russian satirist Gogol in "Before the Theater Gate": "Can't the positive and the negative serve the same purpose? Do not comedies and tragedies express the same sublime thoughts? Does not the dissecting of the minds of the unscrupulous help to paint the image of the virtuous? Does not all this lawlessness and infamy tell us what law, duty, and justice are? ?” This passage shows that the distorting mirror of the real society provided by the author is not only for showing the ridiculous and ugly, but also for contrasting the sublime.In the "Fake" play, the author obviously did not provide us with this kind of characters. Although "Mr. Zhang" and Mr. Zheng are the only two "actual characters" in the play, the author obviously did not provide us with such characters. How many "sublime" factors are given to the body.However, if you put this play together with "Mayor Chen Yi" published by the author soon, you can see the author's intention of "drawing the image of a man of lofty ideals by analyzing the minds of shameless people". Heroes are called in the absence of heroes, and ideal public servants of the people are called in the exposure and criticism of some cadres trapped in privileges and self-interest.Compared with those literary works that directly shape the image of an ideal reformer, the author's intentions can be described as ingenious.In terms of dramatic techniques, the playwright also made innovative attempts.The author ingeniously designed the opening of the "play within a play", which not only communicates the stage with the audience, the plot and reality unexpectedly, giving people a sense of novelty in form, but also coincides with the plot subtly.