Ailing father jogs family memory

In the rehearsal room, where the boundaries between reality and performance blur, veteran actress Tian Shui grapples with an intense personal struggle that she had never experienced before.

It was a day in July when Tian was in rehearsals for the Chinese stage adaptation of Le Pere (The Father), the award-winning work of one of France's most popular young playwrights, Florian Zeller.

Le Pere is the winner of the 2014 Moliere Award for Best Play. A film by the same name, which was adapted and directed by Zeller himself, gained six Oscar nominations in 2021 and won in Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor categories.

The role she plays is Anne, a middle-aged woman whose father, Anthony, suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Reality gradually dissolves in the father's mind, creating many problems between the father and the daughter. Shouldering filial love and responsibility to her family, Anne is under tremendous pressure. She is forced to make an "appropriate" decision — whether to take care of her father or send him to hospital.

This role resonates deeply with Tian because she lost her own mother to the same debilitating illness last year. As Tian steps into the character's shoes, she is compelled to relive the pain and sadness she has worked so hard to overcome.

The actress shared the experience in Beijing on Wednesday, when the Chinese play, Le Pere, was going to be staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on that day with shows running till last Sunday. After 14 consecutive shows in Shanghai from July 28 to Aug 11, the Chinese play, produced by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, has launched a nationwide tour.

"I usually can put my personal feelings aside when I perform onstage or in the rehearsal room. However, that day I went through a profound emotional journey that required me to confront a past that I was trying to forget," says Tian, whose acting career spans the past three decades from movies, TV dramas to theatrical productions.

The scenes involving her character's interactions with her father in the Chinese play mirror the raw, unprocessed grief she carries from her own experience. The script's poignant moments about memory loss and the slow erosion of a loved one's identity strike a familiar chord, evoking memories of her mother's decline and eventual death. It's a painful but necessary confrontation.

"It's like opening a wound I thought had healed," Tian admits. "Sometimes it feels overwhelming, but it's also a way to channel that pain into something meaningful. My own experience helped me to interpret the role of Anne."

She also notes that through her portrayal, she hopes to shed light on the profound impact of Alzheimer's disease, both on individuals and their families.

In the Chinese play, Taiwan actor King Shih-chieh plays the role of the father, an aging man who struggles to accept that he is losing his memory and cognitive function.

"One moment he seems completely lucid and the next (he) cannot recognize his apartment or his daughter — the man dips in and out of memory and presence," says King, 72. "When I read the script, I was intrigued by the writer's approach of depicting the old man's world, which falls apart due to the disease."

To portray the character, King did research to understand the disease's progression and symptoms. He also consulted medical professionals and individuals with firsthand experience to grasp the emotional and cognitive challenges of Alzheimer's. He uses subtle changes in demeanor, memory lapses, and confusion to convey the character's struggle.

"I developed the habit of reading the script of Le Pere every day after we started doing rehearsals. Even now, after the play has been staged, I have kept up the habit. When I read the script, maybe just a few lines, I have new ideas about the character," says the actor. "Ultimately, the goal is to present a portrayal that is both respectful and authentic, shedding light on the complexities of living with Alzheimer's while evoking empathy and understanding from the audience."

King adds that for the Chinese play, he spent over two months in Shanghai working with the creative team members. "I am very careful about accepting invitation from theatrical productions because unlike movies and TV dramas, performing in theaters means the most connection between an actor and the audience. I have to be fully prepared," says the actor who has performed in movies and TV dramas. In King's decades-long career as an actor, one of his most well-known roles is that of Jiang Binliu, the leading man in the play, Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, by Taiwan director Stan Lai in 1986.

"Aging is a passage of life that everyone must experience. What happens when someone afflicted with Alzheimer's approaches the end of their life? What changes occur to their body and mind? What difficulties and dilemmas does the family face? We spent a long time discussing the script before we did rehearsals," says director David Weiguo Jiang. "The writer explores these phenomena from the perspective of the patient, chronicling first-person details of symptoms, taking the audience through the entire process in finding resonance in the emotions, pressures and pains of those involved."

The director also designed stage settings to go with the characters' changes, physically and mentally. For example, in the beginning, the apartment where the father lives seems to be normal, comfortable and full of furniture. However, as his health situation declines, the apartment becomes empty, leaving only a bed on stage.

He also mapped out a space on stage for a corridor, where the actors and actresses walk from one end to another. As they pace quickly on the corridor, they become anxious. They cannot find an exit on the corridor just like they cannot figure out a way to solve their problems.

"It's a tragic story but it is also filled with surprise, suspense, fantasy and mind-bogglingly hilarious moments. As we stage it in more cities, I'm delighted to continue sharing the message of this play," the director says.