Theatre
Thunderstorm
雷雨
Cao Yu · 1934
Synopsis
In the Zhou family, a wealthy household whose head, Zhou Puyuan, a mine owner, rules as master, everything plays out in a single stormy day. Fanyi, his wife, unhappy with this authoritarian husband, has begun an affair with Zhou Ping, the elder son, who turns away from her for the young servant Sifeng; the younger son, Zhou Chong, also loves Sifeng in secret, and her father, Lu Gui, a greedy steward, serves in the house. When Shiping, the servant's mother, arrives during the storm, she finds herself confronted with a past she believed buried.
Context
Cao Yu finished the play during his final year at Tsinghua; it appeared in 1934 in the review Wenxue jikan. Staged shortly afterwards in Jinan, then in 1935 in Shanghai and Tokyo, it made his reputation. A film was made from it as early as 1938, then a ballet in 1981. Cao Yu is seen as the man thanks to whom modern spoken drama took root in China. Tchen Mien translated it into French in 1958, Wang Tso-liang and A. C. Barnes into English.
Who it is for
A play in four acts whose action takes place within a single day; the French translation has existed since 1958.
Prizes and reception
Britannica reports that the 1935 staging made Cao Yu a famous author of Chinese spoken drama.
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