The Chinese opera, Daylight Never Comes, is an adaptation of a traditional Chinese opera, The Ninth Hour, which is based on the story in an opera of the Soochow School, Daylight Never Comes, written by Zhu Su-Chen around the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. The original opera consists of 28 acts and takes up the theme of a faithful servant, a popular theme at the time, just like the theme found in The Snow Jade Cup by Li Yu. The two operas of the same theme went through a similar development as well. Originally, the leading characters in both operas are the masters, while the faithful servants are merely supporting characters. But because the image of a brave servant unafraid of death is so striking, as when the two operas were staged in later generations, the faithful servants, instead of the masters, were often presented as the leading characters. Thus the Chinese opera Daylight Never Comes is a typical opera focusing on laosheng.
There is not much singing in the opera, The Ninth Hour, consisting mostly of speeches delivered by laosheng. Many famous actors, such as Tan Xin-Pei, Pan Yue-Qiao, Zhou Xin-Fang, Ma Lian-Liang, and Gao Qing-Kuei, are good at the role in this opera. Famous opera troupes of the Qi School and the Ma School have had their performances of this opera recorded, and Ma Lian-Liang’s performance was also recorded. As evident from modern stage performances, The Ninth Hour keeps the original story of the courtroom trial, but emphasizes Ma Yi’s action. Instead of sacrificing his wife as in the original story, Ma Yi sacrifices his daughter, and thus the entanglement of the husband, the wife, and the daughter, is emphasized. A clown walks in and out of the story to offer comic relief for such a tragic and tension-filled drama.
In the traditional opera, The Ninth Hour, the story is full of twists and turns and the killing of Ma’s daughter and the rolling on a bed of nails are two of its highlights. But the tension built through these scenes is limited. Moreover, such a plot development is not logical and the design is weak and unfocused. Without a famous actor to play the leading roles, it is easy for the characters to appear dull and boring. In particular, though the killing of the girl and the rolling on a bed of nails can attract the audience’s attention, they are hard for the audience to watch. After 1949, especially, the opera was banned on stage many times in China as it was criticized as full of feudal values, superstitious, and bloody. Taiwan never banned its performance, but rolling on a bed of nails may be bloody and is excessively demanding for actors, so the opera has rarely been put on stage. Now it is indeed a forbidden opera.
It has not been easy to revive this old opera. Besides the stunning scene of rolling on a bed of nails, the opera is far removed from the aesthetics of modern drama as it presents stale values and is slow in pace and loose in plot. Thus, the opera, Daylight Never Comes, actually went through a total revision. The playwright Liu Huei-Fen kept the key points of the original story but changed its structure completely. The case of injustice never appears on stage. Some characters, such as Hou Hua-Zui, Mi Jin-Tu’s sister-in-law, and Hou’s wife, are eliminated. Ma Yi becomes the sole focus of the opera which shows the complete process of Ma Yi’s appeal in court, and the lyrics of the songs strengthen the feeling of the character that was barely touched upon in the original opera. Two night watchmen appear in the opera to bring a unity to the opera and reveal its theme. As Liu Hui-Fen is familiar with the traditional opera, the lyrics she wrote are rich with the flavor of the traditional opera, and the plot development offers abundant space for acting. Whereas the original opera of The Ninth Hour is mainly composed of speeches, the revised opera of Daylight Never Comes emphasizes both the speeches and the singing. With much refinement and sophistication and the well-knit plot, the opera poses a great challenge to the acting skills and energy of actors. Tang Wen-Hua, Guoguang’s leading actor who specializes in the role of laosheng, pushes his acting skills to the full extent in this opera by combining the skills of both the Qi School and the Ma School to present the image of a loyal, kind, yet foolish and stupid servant, and is definitely at the center of this opera. As the original story is full of defects, Guoguang’s version is certainly vulnerable to criticism. But the playwright, the director, and the actors present the opera at a fast rhythm and with passion, so that the audience is drawn into it before they have time to question the illogicality of the story. Daylight Never Comes, produced by the Guoguang Opera Company, isa mixture of old and new that presents a new style rarely seen in contemporary drama.
