Writer 1879: Solitary Journey in France

Chapter 315: Guiding the Way for Dramatic Arts!

Stepping out of the director's office at the Comédie-Française, the chilly Parisian winter wind felt like a bucket of ice water poured over Lionel's face.

Emil Perrin's hesitation and incessant chatter about the budget were entirely expected.

Any person in charge of a large and traditional institution like the Comédie-Française would naturally react with resistance to such a "crazy" list.

But Lionel was not disappointed; he had made it clear that he had handed over the power of choice.

Now, the pressure is on Perrin's side.

He wrapped his coat tighter around himself, did not call for a carriage, and instead walked briskly along Rue Richelieu, the outline of "Thunderstorm" gradually becoming clearer in his mind.

What he wanted was not just a story of "Thunderstorm" set in France, but a true stage revolution.

"A Doll's House" broke the virtuality of classical drama with its realistic set design, but Lionel wanted to go even further.

He wanted to make stage technology an integral part of the narrative, so that lighting, sound, and scenery would no longer be merely background elements, but would directly participate in the performance and stimulate the audience's senses.

At the heart of "Thunderstorm" lies the family tragedy that brews under pressure and finally erupts violently, and the sense of destiny that is intertwined with blood ties, class, lust, and fate...

These dramatic effects require a more impactful and matching stage performance to be perfectly presented.

The autocratic Zhou Puyuan, the tragic Lu Shiping, the desperately rebellious Fanyi, the cowardly and struggling Zhou Ping-like figure...

The core of these characters could be transplanted to 19th-century France, giving them new flesh and blood and soul.

As he walked, he was rapidly working through ideas for "localization" in his mind.

The story must be set in the 1870s, specifically in Paris; no other city is sufficient to represent France.

He wanted to retain the original work's closed-off and repressive atmosphere, while also incorporating the unique turmoil and changes in French society after the collapse of the Second Empire.

That "Zhou Puyuan" was originally the son of a large landowner in the countryside of Rouen. Through a marriage with a nobleman of the Second Empire, he transformed himself into a big capitalist.

That "Lu Shiping" was originally a maid in the manor. After giving birth to two children for the young master, she was driven away because the young master wanted to marry a noblewoman.

And "Fanyi," this woman imprisoned in a magnificent cage, her pain, her resistance, her almost destructive passion—

In terms of symbolism and character tension, it completely surpasses Nora in "A Doll's House".

She is not just a person, but a symbol of a power that is twisted in repression and ultimately seeks to explode.

As for Zhou Ping, Zhou Chong, and Si Feng, their tragedies were both the cruel tricks of fate and the inevitable product of old shackles.

These characters and their conflicts, once placed in a realistic and tangible stage environment—one that even "breathes" with the unfolding plot—

When the thunder is no longer a fake sound made by shaking sheet metal in the background, but a more textured roar;
When lightning is no longer the white light painted on the curtain, but a blinding light that can instantly illuminate the terrified expressions on the actors' faces;

—Then, the emotional impact it can achieve will be something that audiences of this era have never experienced before.

Lionel knew this would be difficult, especially since the arc lamps were glaring and unstable, and controlling their flickering was even more challenging.

But as Nikola Tesla himself explained, the technology wasn't entirely lacking; it was just that no one had yet integrated it into the drama.

The Paris Opera's rudimentary attempt a few years ago ultimately failed due to a lack of suitable scripts.

Once it is proven that this new lighting can serve the theatrical content, it will quickly become popular and spur more scripts to rely on this stage technology.

Constructing a realistic two-story indoor set poses a huge challenge to the stage's load-bearing capacity.

It's important to know that 19th-century theatrical stages were not "solid," but rather "suspended" on wooden or steel frames, much like the deck of a ship.

The area beneath the stage wasn't a storage room, but rather a maze of stage machinery and crisscrossing gas pipes.

To achieve what would be considered extremely rudimentary lighting effects by modern standards, a large theater would need to lay hundreds of gas pipes and install hundreds of various valves.

This was certainly very unsafe – in fact, before electric lights completely replaced gas lamps for audience and stage lighting, several theaters burned down in Europe almost every year.

In 1873, the old Paris Opera (Opera de Lepertier) was destroyed by fire due to a gas leak.

This is one of the reasons why Lionel rarely went to the theater compared to other Parisian writers; he didn't want to be blown up while watching a performance.

Electric lights—whether incandescent or arc lamps—are far easier to control and much safer than gas lamps.

"Thunderstorm" is precisely a play that resonates with the French audience on the theme and is technically feasible.

In this era, no one understands better than Lionel how "electric lighting" should be applied and presented on stage.

He was the only one who had ever seen how a real "electrified stage" worked.

Other well-known plays, such as "Teahouse," not only have a much greater cultural background than "Thunderstorm," but also lack significant technological innovation.

As for musicals like "The Phantom of the Opera," even setting aside the script, the stage technology alone in the 1980s was something that engineers all over the world combined couldn't handle.

Of course, if you can accept watching every 30 minutes and then going home to wait a week—until the stage set and lighting for the next scene are installed—that's not impossible either.

Such an audience probably hasn't been born yet.

A counterintuitive fact is that literary works, as "products of the mind," are constrained or promoted by material conditions far more than most people imagine.

Before the widespread use of photography, novelists had to write lengthy descriptions of the environment; but after the advent of cameras, everyone has a bit of a "camera sense" and can change perspectives.

As a stage art, drama relies on technology even more than novels; one could even say that technology can determine the plot to a certain extent.

Lionel believed, almost arrogantly, that if the technical conditions met his requirements, the play *Thunderstorm* could be made without any characters.

As long as a real "two-story" set is set up on the stage, the lights are turned on, and there is "thunder and lightning" for two hours, it can still create a sensation.

Theatrical masters from all over Europe would come to Paris, drool over the show for three hours, and then go back and whip the theater manager to make stage modifications.

It's worth noting that the world's first "movie," "The Arrival of a Train," had no plot and was only 46 seconds long, yet audiences flocked to buy tickets to watch it.

Wait, movies, Lionel suddenly remembered that the inventor of the camera was also French... He shook his head, putting the thought out of his mind for now.

He wanted to focus on "Thunderstorm"—the emergence of "A Doll's House" foreshadowed the eve of a transformation in European theatrical art.

Lionel, you must take the lead and pave this new path for theater!
Whether or not Émile Perrin ultimately agrees, he will write Thunderstorm.

If the Comedy Theatre remains complacent, he will seek out more adventurous collaborators—such as the Paris Opera, which is currently enjoying great success with "A Doll's House."

Or those smaller, but more innovative private theaters.

When they returned to 117 Boulevard Saint-Germain, it was nearly dusk. The newly hired cook was busy in the kitchen, while Petty was doing her homework in the living room.

Upon seeing Lionel, Petty rushed over: "Young Master, you're back! Miss Sophie came by earlier and left something on your desk when she saw you weren't here."

Sister Alice is still at the cooperative and hasn't returned yet.

Lionel nodded, took off his coat, hung it up, and went straight to the study.

On the desk, there was a stack of manuscript papers, with a note on top.

Sophie briefly informed him that some preliminary feedback on the typewriter sales had been compiled and was available for his reference at any time.

At the end, she added, "Take care and don't overwork yourself." This simple act of care warmed Lionel's heart.

He carefully put the note away, then rolled up a new sheet of paper on the typewriter's paper tube and solemnly typed the title: "Thunderstorm".

(End of this chapter)