1.Introduction

As one of China's famous drama directors, Meng Jinghui is not only the leader of China's avant-garde drama, but also one of the founders of China's Wuzhen Drama Festival. Meng Jinghui was born in 1964 in Beijing, China. He graduated from the Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University in 1986 and the director department of the Central Academy of Drama in 1991. Meng Jinghui's avant-garde drama works are full of rebellion against Chinese traditional drama, as well as a large number of personal colors and innovative ideas. In terms of artistic features, Meng Jinghui's plays are young and rebellious. The stage is full of madness, hysteria and black humor. This artistic feature has also led to a wide range of audiences for his works. The playfulness in his drama style is especially popular with young people. Daniel Bell once felt that "it is a fact that contemporary culture is becoming a visual culture rather than a printing culture [1]." With the development of the times and the arrival of the image era, dramatic art has changed and formed a new dramatic form. It is in this era background that Meng Jinghui has formed a director style with strong personal characteristics through years of experimental exploration. Stimulate the audience's senses with direct audio-visual way to enhance the audience's pleasure in the watching process. In his representative work, "The Murder of Hanging Garden", the performance in this respect is particularly obvious.

"The Murder of Hanging Garden" is Meng Jinghui's first rock musical. Once it came out in 2009, it won the full support of old and new fans. "The Murder of Hanging Garden" tells the story of a mysterious, bizarre and absurd comedy murder. The main character of the murder is Wang Zong, a famous real estate tycoon. After the disappearance of Wang Zong, Mrs. Wang offered a reward for finding the murderer in the villa "Hanging Gardens". "Hanging Garden" has aroused a fierce pursuit in the whole city, and a series of riddled and grotesque crime plans and stories have been launched with this as a clue. This article will take "The Murder of Hanging Garden" as the main research object, from the vanguard drama characteristic, the artistic expression method, the dance beautiful structure and the rock music use, to carry on the research to the artistic characteristic of "The Murder of Hanging Garden".

2.Murder in the hanging garden as a pioneer drama

The birth of avant-garde drama in the 1990s marked a new path for Chinese drama in its rebellion against traditional drama. Meng Jinghui is one of the leading figures in the field of Chinese avant-garde drama. Pioneer talk drama pays more attention to the public's aesthetic needs and the expression of the spirit of the times. It is quite different from the traditional drama in stage performance, narrative structure and language style.

Meng Jinghui was born in the 1960s, and China grew up in the 1970s, as if the air was full of slogans and slogans. In the interview, he once said, "when I was in high school, I accepted the revolutionary literature of the Soviet union, the idealism and heroism of the Soviet union, war, human nature under the atmosphere of war, etc[2]." Meng Jinghui, who grew up under this background, had a close relationship with idealism, which also appeared in his avant-garde works.

The rock musical "The Murder of Hanging Garden" is a series of three stories with the themes of crazy love, absurd friendship and abnormal family ties. Idealism, which is never lacking in Meng Jinghui's plays, is especially prominent in "The Murder of Hanging Garden". On the one hand, the absurd idealism is embodied in the three groups of families' plot of delusion to achieve the goal of defrauding the sky garden through the riddled crime process, and the "sky garden" itself has also become a symbol representing idealism in the drama.

"Hanging Garden" is an idealistic symbol. The pursuit of this symbol is reflected in love. It is Dr. Zhao's crazy love for Kong Yanyan, the little nurse's emotional obsession with Dr. Zhao, and the inner compensation by Kong Yanyan to comfort her pain of not being able to play the heroine. In the absurd friendship, it was a kiss that was never realized in the childhood of the shrimps, and it was a life-saving straw for Bian Changsheng and Wen Fang. The "hanging garden" in the abnormal family ties is Su Su's father's compensation for his children's guilt. For Su Su and Su Wenjing, it is the compensation for the lack of family ties and the key to changing the fate. For Wang Zong, it is a work of art that he devoted his whole life to. All kinds of characters in the drama are deformed and crazy because of various emotions, but it is their strong emotions that often strike the hearts of the audience directly. They pay the price of death to satisfy the unrealistic desire of those who care about the "sky garden”.

Despite the idealism of the play, the black humor of "The Murder of Hanging Garden" runs through the whole play. Black humor is an absurd literary genre, an artistic expression that juxtaposes pain with laughter, absurd facts with calm, and cruelty with tenderness. Meng Jinghui attaches great importance to the use of modern drama language. Two-part allegorical sayings, proverbs and smooth talk, no matter whether they are vulgar or elegant, regardless of high or low. As long as they are interesting, Meng Jinghui will put them into dialogue. Such as "The Murder of Hanging Garden" act 8:

Chef: When it comes to western food, what first comes to your mind?

Wen Fang: Perfume.

Kong Yanyan: The erotic drama in the bathroom.

Pi Pi Xia: Youth.

Su Wenjing: Rope.

Chef: I'm sorry, didn't you think of napkins and tablecloths? The first thing I think about is that the table cloth is used in the napkins. It is French King Lu Yi 14. Therefore, French cuisine is respected as the father of western food.

WenFang: Well, what about Italian food?

Chef: The mother of western food.

Pi Pi Xia: What about the Russian-style dinner?

Chef: Master of Western Food.

Su Su [Stand Up Angry]: Who the fuck are you calling uncle?

Wen Fang: I didn't scold you. What do you care?

[After a brief period of confusion in the western restaurant, everyone called each other "bastards" in one language and then calmed down. The absurd lines are combined with the calm attitude. This passage reflects the artistic technique of black humor used by Meng Jinghui. Of course, the use of black humor in the play is not only this part. In the performance of the "joint code" between the two when they met Bian Changsheng, the use of the code by the two was normal and gradually became absurd. From the beginning of the old Beijing, the time-honored brand, the old chicken soup, the old duck soup to the later old ya ting, the old gang cuisine, by combining the slang of Beijing dialect, the script is connected with the audience's life, and the distance between the audience and the stage is shortened.

Although avant-garde drama is a rebellion against tradition to some extent, Meng Jinghui is not reluctant to use traditional elements in his avant-garde drama, for example, in Act 8 of "The Murder of Hanging Garden”:

Chef: What do you mean?

Wen Fang: People, may be stupid, but they are not necessarily bad.

Chef: What do you mean?

Wen Fang: Beginning of life is inherently good.

Chef [some angry]: What do you mean?

Wen Fang [timidly shrinks behind Bian Changsheng]: No, yeah.

Chef [smile again]: In the kitchen, knives are divided into western-style knives, salad knives, skinning knives, flaking knives, sawtooth knives and bone-cutting knives, while the commonly used hand tools are divided into knife sharpeners, grindstones, chopping boards, peelers, wire scrapers, ball diggers, meat pendants, chefs' bottles, daubing knives, rubber scrapers, egg beaters, flower pouches, and various flower pouches.

This passage starts from the traditional Chinese "Three-character Canon" and merges the “guan kou" in the traditional humorous cross talk. The addition of traditional Chinese elements highlights the artistic features of black humor.

3.The Artistic Expression of "The Murder of Hanging Garden”

Meng Jinghui's plays are young and full of rebellious spirit, which is more obvious in "The Murder of Hanging Garden". The black humor and hysterical performance style in its own lines, together with angry rock music and the combination of the three artistic expressions, make "The Murder of Hanging Garden" full of dramatic artistic tension and attract more viewers' attention. "The Murder of Hanging Garden" is full of black humor, and absurdity is also an indispensable part of Meng Jinghui's plays. The absurdity in this drama is mainly realized by Meng Jinghui's secularization and humor in the artistic language and the satire and immediacy in the performers' performance.

As mentioned above, in dealing with the language of secularization and humor, Meng Jinghui's inspiration is often drawn from the secular language of Chinese folk, and at the same time, he also draws on the language art of Chinese folk, such as the performance method of cross talk, etc. As long as it is interesting and in line with the style of drama, Meng Jinghui flexibly applies it in his own artistic language of drama.

At the same time, the performance style of Meng Jinghui's plays is improvisational, exaggerated, humorous and rebellious. Meng Jinghui will give the stage to the actors very freely and give them maximum freedom. In the sixth act of "The Murder of Hanging Garden", the original dialogue between Su Su and Su Su's father reads as follows:

Su Su: Dad, do you know how my sister and I came here during your years in prison?

Su Su Dad: I know.

Su Su: You know nothing!

Su Su Dad: Drink the wine.

Su Su: Why?

Su Su Dad: Because, I am your dad!

Su Su: OK! "Two people lift the bottle to drink"

Su Su: Dad, I was chopped off with a little thumb.

Su Su Dad: I know.

Su Su: You know nothing!

Father Su Su; Drink the wine.

Su Su: Why?

Su Su Dad: Because, I am your dad!

Su Su: OK! "Two people lift the bottle to drink"

Su Su: Dad, do you know what my sister has been doing all these years?

Su Su Dad: I know.

Su Su: Say.

Su Su's dad: A massage lady.

Su Wenjing [heard her career in a trance, and immediately entered the drama]: Boss, what a joy!

Su Su: She often commits suicide.

Su Su Dad: I know.

Su Su: You know nothing!

Su Su Dad: Drink the wine.

Su Su: Why?

Su Su Dad: Because, I am your dad!

Su Su: OK! "Two people lift the bottle to drink"

Su Su: You're sorry to me and my sister, I fuck you!

Su Su dad: I understand.

Su Su: What do you understand?

Su Su Dad: Drink the wine.

Su Su: Why?

Su Su Dad: Because, I am your dad!

Su Su: OK! "Two people lift the bottle to drink"

I gave it to the actor for a second creation and changed the last sentence.

Su Su's dad: You're sorry to me and my sister, I fuck you big ye!

Su Su dad: I understand.

Su Su: What do you understand?

Su Su Dad: Drink the wine.

Su Su: Why?

Su Su Dad: Because, I am your dad!

Su Su: You're awesome! "Two people lift the bottle to drink”

In this passage, the actor's impromptu performance expresses a humorous but absurd comedy effect in repeated and even vulgar lines.

Meng Jinghui criticized the traditional drama for being mediocre, dry and full of preaching. At the same time, he also expressed his artistic ideal vehemently: "We will establish ourselves to look at the world with another kind of eyes, from the persistent love that will never be lost, from the deep poetic feeling in the twinkling of an eye of the stars, from the brilliant sunshine that erupts with passion, to find the right to run, jump and fly freely, to free the fresh things in us from the shackles of Chen Xiangyin and the bad habits that have no talent, and to let the noble things in our hearts breathe freely in the free air [3].”

Meng Jinghui's passion and rebellion are also reflected in the lines of his plays. Monologue plays a significant role in his plays, and "The Murder of Hanging Garden" is no exception. In “The Murder of Hanging Garden”, whether it is the monologue of Dr. Zhao during the operation for Kong Yanyan, the monologue of the little nurse, the monologue of Kong Yan Yan when she wakes up, or the monologue of the chef when he enters the stage, all are interspersed with the strong personal feelings and colors of the characters.

Monologue expresses the character's inner activities by communicating with himself in artistic language. Monologue is a test of performers' ability in drama performance. Therefore, in the process of monologues, the performers have to play two roles separately, so as to show a strong conflict with the fierce content struggle. This requires the performer to be able to freely switch between two or more of the inner world, using exaggeration or amplification [4]. Thus affecting the hearts of the audience, bringing them into the performers' roles and creating a strong dramatic shock.

Such as Dr. Zhao's monologue during Kong Yanyan's operation:

Once in the camera two cases (wipe sweat)

At this moment, you are near the body (bandage)

The media said you were depressed and insomnia (absorbent cotton)

Facing me with closed eyes (hemostatic forceps),

You appeared in a deep coma.

Like my love prophecy

The body may be complete and sound.

The soul is a nightmare of destruction

In this monologue, Dr. Zhao plays the role of both a doctor and a lover, expressing his inner contradiction and helplessness. In addition, the most commonly used sentence pattern in Meng Jinghui's drama lines is parallelism, such as the monologue of Kong Yanyan when she wakes up from a coma:

I dreamed that there was no one in the dark room.

I have a half-burnt cigarette in hand.

I feel in the heart haunted fox list

I heard the ear continuously leisurely call

I'm lonely and I try to disguise myself as someone with a good appearance.

I am lonely, but who can take me to escape from this incubus

Through constant comparisons, the inner fear and loneliness of the characters are constantly piling up and spewing out.

In addition to long monologues, every word and line of the characters in "The Murder of Hanging Garden" are subjected to repeated scrutiny to express the characters' distinct personality characteristics. Dr. Zhao is a professional surgeon. In order to reflect the characters' characteristics, his lines are constantly interspersed with medical terms. At the same time, he uses chemical terms such as sodium chloride and aluminum oxide to call salt and sapphire, in order to highlight his almost pathological professionalism. These personalized lines can not only create a full image of the characters and highlight their individual characteristics, but also enable the audience to have a more direct understanding of the characters.

The Su family's lines in the play, whether it's their younger brother Su Su, their father Su Su or their sister Su Wenjing, tend to be vulgar, with outrageous intonation and hoarse and torn voice. This kind of artistic design in the lines and language better shows the image of a family at the bottom of the society, and is more in line with the character setting that Su Su's father is a released prisoner, his sister is a massage lady, and his brother is a gangster.

In addition, while portraying the characters, Su Su has been making rude remarks to his father during the dialogue, which also reflects his dissatisfaction with his father. In addition, his lines also reflect his regret for the absence of his children's growth. Through the lines and language, "The Murder of Hanging Garden" successfully portrays the Su-Su family, which is at the bottom of the society and is not harmonious. Combining with the plot, it further stimulates the drama contradiction.

Learning Chinese, Meng Jinghui's drama language is not only interesting and full of language tension, but also full of poetic flavor and strong lyrical color.

4.The Composition of Stage art and the Application of Rock and Roll in "The Murder of Hanging Garden”

As a comprehensive art, drama presents a complete stage performance through the assistance and support of drama, performance, stage art lighting, sound effects and other elements, and through the overall planning of the director. In the drama performance, apart from the body movements and language expressions of the performers, it is also necessary to combine appropriate stage scenery to present perfect performance works. When performing a drama, it is necessary to make rational use of the limited stage space, combine the actors' own feelings and imagination, and create a strong sense of space in the small theater, in order to deliver excellent stage effects.

"Music is not a dispensable ornament of drama. Music itself bears the aesthetic means of creating and communicating dramatic poems [5]. " The classic drama works can stand the test of time and the audience's thinking. The use of music and songs is an important part of drama.

Different from the traditional drama, in the practice of China's pioneer drama, the use of non-figurative, freehand, imaginative and stream-of-consciousness techniques in the stage space has greatly expanded the narrative ability of China's contemporary experimental drama. The stage space can flow almost freely. The combination of narrow stage and music has become an important means of setting off atmosphere, creating situation, changing, rendering emotion and highlighting the theme of the drama. It makes the drama have infinite passion and power, and promotes the philosophization of the drama scene and the sublimation of the realm. As the leader of Chinese avant-garde drama, the stage features of avant-garde drama are also presented in Meng Jinghui's works. In the use of music, Meng Jinghui is good at combining music and drama closely, and the lyrics and dialogue cross to promote the change of different atmosphere on the stage, making the work more artistic.

The absurd surrealism and strong lyric style in "The Murder of Hanging Garden", the powerful explosive force and exciting plot rhythm in the stage performance, and the strong visual appreciation are all the characteristics of Meng's avant-garde drama. Lao She once outlined: "The dialogue in the drama is to get onto the stage, through the actor's mouth, to the audience's ears. From mouth to ear, it must involve the musicality of the language [6]." Murder in the Hanging Gardens shows that Meng Jinghui has always attached importance to music, in which the use of rock music, combined with the intense plot, plays an important role in the promotion and development of the plot while expressing feelings through a strong lyrical way.

"The Murder of Hanging Garden" makes full use of rock music, such as “Lion and Tiger Hill” sung by Dr. Zhao, nurse and Kong Yanyan, “the Creator” and “the Most Beautiful Sigh” sung by group figures in act 8, etc., all of these are emotional catharsis and dialogue between the characters themselves through rock music. The anger, rebellion and emotional intensity of rock music have been brought into full play and applied to the drama. Each character in the play expresses his/her self and emotion. As the lonely Kong Yan Yan sings: "I am lonely! Whether it's set or Lion Tiger Mountain! I am lonely! Why don't you let me sleep forever! " "I tried to kiss people's faces, but their faces changed. I tried to find my own hometown, but people advised me to continue wandering." Director Wang, who is eager to escape from reality: "The crazy and ferocious face, surrounded by the devil's chains around me, has changed its face to say goodbye to the past. Where can I find a peach garden without disturbing my heart?" Meng Jinghui combines the language of poetry with the passion and rebellious rhythm of rock music, fully expressing each character's inner contradiction and strong self-consciousness.

Meng Jinghui's beloved parallelism-style artistic language has also been fully applied to the lyrics of rock music in the play. For example, Dr. Zhao, who loves Kong Yan Yan on his own, "I fell in love with the ethereal stars in the water. How can I own them when they are dancing and shining? Then I will burn you and give you heat to illuminate the end of the universe. If I love you, I am only a murderer." Su Su's father, who owes his children, "I have nothing to ask for from the government, so that my children will be well fed and clothed. Forgive me for not showing up. You are afraid that when you are cold and you need me, I will redeem myself. I am only a murderer." Spoony Pi Pi Xia: "When I choose to leave you, my life has come to an end, and there is only a little time left for you to look back and change your life. I am only a murderer.”

The rock group play in act 8 is the climax of "The Murder of Hanging Garden", and it is also the most emotional and hysterical scene. The application of rock music in the form of group plays in "The Murder of Hanging Garden" not only expresses the characters' crazy and collapsing hearts, but also highlights the rebellious and angry attitude in "The Murder of Hanging Garden", which makes a strong satire on the real world.

5.Conclusion

As Meng Jinghui's first rock musical, "The Murder of Hanging Garden" has accumulated experience for the exploration of Chinese avant-garde drama in terms of script writing, choreography and the use of lines. However, while using the artistic language and music that Meng Jinghui has always been good at, "The Murder of Hanging Garden" impressed the audience with its wonderful dialogue and music with metal and rock colors. However, the actor's physical performance and stage performance were limited to a certain extent, which failed to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the audience. "The Murder of Hanging Garden" is not as serious and painful as the western modernist drama, and it arouses the audience's laughter and thinking with its black humor when it expresses the tragedy.