Stage play The Last Warrior Elephant is a co-production of the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group and Shanghai Puppet Theatre with HE Nian as the director. The play is the important repertoire for Shanghai Puppet Theatre to present at the 12th China Art Festival.

 

 

In November 2018, The Last Warrior Elephant was performed at the Opening Ceremony of the 6th Golden Magnolia Shanghai International Puppet Festival at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. Set in the Anti-Japanese War period, the play tells how a teenager, who grows up with a little elephant, lives in harmony and defends the motherland during the war.

 

The Last Warrior Elephant is a family play full of fun, and “a legend about humanity and the elephant in the war.” The stage play is co-produced by Chinese and foreign teams, which use the latest multimedia technology for overall visual art presentation to reveal the harmonious relationship between man and nature/animals and tell the Chinese story in an international view.

 

 

Adapted from SHEN Shixi's popular novel of the same title, the stage play The Last Warrior Elephant is set in Xishuangbanna in China's southwestern Yunnan province during the Anti-Japanese War, where elephants have long been consecrated.

 

Bo Nong Ding, a Dai orphan, saves the newborn elephant Ga Suo with his companion Kun Ge. Therefore，the boy and the baby elephant develops a mutual trust and profound friendship in the course of domestication. However, the expanding invasion of the Japanese forces poses a huge threat to the Da Luo village on the China's border. Bo Nong Ding finally determines to come to the front line with Ga Suo to combat the enemies and defend their homeland. Now they are not only friends, but also comrades-in-arms.

 

The story, set in the flames of the war, unfolds with the growth of the child and the baby elephant, conveying a theme of harmony between human beings and elephants. With dramatic ups and downs, lifelike elephant puppets, and alternating light and shadow, the stage play evokes profound sympathy with loyalty and harmony and arouses people's familial and national sentiments peculiar to the Chinese people.

 

 

Director: He Nian

HE Nian graduated from Department of Directing, Shanghai Theatre Academy with a MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree. He is a director at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, national second-class director with a sub-senior professional title, and deputy to the People’s Congress of Xuhui District, Shanghai City. In 2011, he studied in Lincoln Centre for half a year.

 

Creative
Director: He Nian
Composer: Peng Fei
Set Designer: Shen Li
Lighting Designer: Ren Dongsheng
Video Projection Designer: 59 Productions