A curtain call

I still can't help but be moved by my mother's attention to the curtain call of the actors after the theater performance.

Not only did she clap along with everyone else and smile up at the actors as they made their way to the curtain call, she would mutter words and exclamations as if they were overheard. She was always one of those die-hard fans who held out the applause until the curtain closed and then left the stage undecided.

Mother valued curtain calls and, above all, there was a strong respect for actors. She once said that you should cherish every performance you watch as much as you cherish every article. But it is not merely a courtesy governed by reason. Mother has an artistic instinct.

I remember going to see Chekhov's uncle Vanya performed by China Youth Art Theater when I was a teenager. The play of life and the characters not only from me as a Chinese teenager very far away, in fact always didn't go abroad, and the mother is also very diaphragm, but the curtain opened, remember the first scene is set in the 19th century Russia provincial farm garden corner, wear a suit of gentleman and wear dress lady leisurely activities on the stage, From the long table under the shade of the big silver samovar tea drink, said some very dull words, I began to really some "pig eight quit eating ginseng fruit I do not know its taste", imperceptible left leg shake up, mother felt, with his right hand gently press my left knee, softly in my ear said: "see how they are not happy ah!" Mother this hint, unexpectedly let me suddenly capture the emotional appeal of the play, I watched attentively like mother, gradually from those seemingly dull dialogue, heard the taste, small heart then pondering: the scenery is so beautiful, wear, eat, live so good, but why are these people so unhappy...... Of course, I can't say I really understood anything at the end of the play. When the actors took their curtain call, my mother clapped her hands for a long time as usual, and I clapped too. On the tramway home, I said to my mother, "That's a good play." Her mother asked, "What's so good about it?" I said: "Uncle Vanya told his niece Sonya that you have beautiful hair. Sonya says that when one is not beautiful, people tell her she has beautiful hair..." Mother smiled like a slowly blossoming flower and said, "It's not worth it for you to remember such a few lines, and it's not worth it for them to perform such a play."

Play is life, life is play. That's too old. There is something young about it -- it is fascinating precisely because it is so different from life, and life is far more treacherous than any drama. Now, recalling the various scenes my mother took me to the theater, I suddenly realize that the greatest significance and pleasure of the theater is to insert some "beautiful pauses" into life.

My mother took me to the theatre and nurtured my civilized habits. Now, twenty years after my mother's death, I don't go to the theater much. But once I go to the theater to watch the play, I always enter the theater in advance, never "draw lots" in the middle, I most dislike those spectators who stand up and retreat before the curtain falls, I always treat the curtain call with sincere applause and look up to the actors, on the way home from the theater, I will reflect on those scenes that moved me the most.

Western classical operas usually have several minutes of overture before the official opening. At the end of most Western movies, the finale, sometimes a very long song, is played with detailed credits and subtitles. Many Chinese audiences are not used to sitting quietly in the cinema until all the subtitles are finished and they enjoy the finale and then leave their seats. Some cinemas even stop the screening before the copy is completely finished. Some people watch the CD at home and are even more impatient to listen to the finale of the film. Three years ago, I watched a French film in the Pompidou Center in Paris. After the story ended, the subtitles on the black background went on for five or six minutes, but only a few audience left the scene. Most of them sat still and watched the finale with the subtitles. When I found myself in a foreign country, I suddenly thought of my mother and her pious treatment of the actors, and I realized more deeply that immersing myself in art is a "beautiful pause" in our journey.