Goldberg Variations

"Did you know that ginkgo is probably the loneliest creature in the world."

The words were still in his ears, and Gu Kai remembered the inexplicable smile on Pei Wen's face when he said those words.

He didn't understand at the time, but now Gu Kai understands.

Immersed in his own world, the guest even called Gu Kai a few times, but Gu Kai didn't hear him.

The guests couldn't help feeling strange, and murmured inwardly: ...is it so difficult for those who engage in art to communicate?

Gu Kai didn't recover until the guest left.

He just felt worse.

There is some kind of depressed and depressed emotion in my heart, which I can't vent.

Gu Kai's first reaction was to find Zhu Shaohui, and when he was about to make a call, he suddenly remembered that Zhu Shaohui was traveling with his wife.

The couple were having fun, and they didn't want to disturb them, so they put away their mobile phones, sat there for a while, and then got up suddenly.

Gu Kai closed the door of Qizhong Jewelry, drove home directly, and began to pack up and salute.

After packing up and saluting, Gu Kai searched the latest itinerary of the Legendary Troupe on the Internet, and booked hotels in several cities in the tour.

"I'm going to go out soon." Gu Kai sent a message in the group, and Aite Shi Yangming and Wan Ying said, "You two take a good look at the store and call me if you have anything to do."

Wan Ying: "Going out? Boss, where are you going?"

Shi Yangming: "Are you going on a business trip?"

Gu Kai: "Travel."

After a good night's rest, Gu Kai set off early the next morning.

He was indeed going on a trip, a self-driving tour, but the route was to follow the location of Pei Wen's performance.

Not long after, Gu Kai drove out of the city, onto the highway, and headed for the first stop of Pei Wen's tour.

The process of driving alone is always boring, but when walking on the highway, Gu Kai did not dare to lose his mind, and tried his best to let himself not think about things related to Pei Wen, and focus on driving.

In the afternoon, Gu Kai arrived at the first stop.

The performance was the day after tomorrow, and in the extra two days, Gu Kai traveled in this city, admiring various beautiful scenery, tasting various delicacies, and experiencing the customs and customs of different cities.

On the night of the performance, with one hour left before the official start of the performance, Gu Kai stood at the entrance of the theater, hesitating whether to go in or not.

In all fairness, he wanted to see Pei Wen.

But he also felt that the two had already broken up, and it was hypocritical for him to follow him like this.

More importantly, if he saw Pei Wen feel bad, he would feel bad too.

If seeing Pei Wen wasn't sad at all, wouldn't he be even more sad?

Gu Kai was so entangled that he didn't know what to do. He stood at the entrance of the theater and smoked a cigarette, and then went in at the last moment.

In order to avoid being discovered by Pei Wen, Gu Kai deliberately chose a very remote location.

In the dimly lit corner, the vision was not very good, and Gu Kai couldn't see Pei Wen's face clearly.

But he could feel that Pei Wen was completely immersed in the performance.He is no longer Pei Wen, but the young man named Kan in the play.

The play "Red" tells the story of the American abstract painter Mark Rothko who was invited to paint for the Four Seasons Hotel, and the merchant offered a sky-high price.Kan, a "little worker" who wanted to be a painter, became his assistant, and the two had a soul-deep conversation in the studio.In the end, Rothko returned the exorbitant remuneration and refused to display his paintings in the Four Seasons Hotel.

On stage is the dimly lit Rothko Studio.

Rothko's murals are displayed around the studio, and oil paint buckets, coffee cans full of brushes, paint boxes and whiskey bottles are scattered on several long tables, and the hardwood floor is full of shades of red oil paint.

Rothko, the painter played by another veteran of the Legendary Troupe, is wearing an old ill-fitting clothes, covered with glue and rapeseed, with a thick lens hanging on the bridge of his nose, and a cigarette with a little red between the index finger and middle finger of his left hand. Lights flicker on and off on the stage.

He's showing off his drawings to his new assistant, Kan:

"what did you see?"

Kan, played by Pei Wen, was wearing a shirt, suit and tie, and was about to answer, when Rothko said again:

"Wait a minute. You stand closer, you have to be close to it, feel its pulse, let it touch you, open its arms to embrace you, occupy your entire field of vision—"

Actors speak their lines with emotional accents and rhythms.

"red."

Unlike "The Rhinoceros in Love", "Red" does not have a strong storyline. The whole process is full of two protagonists talking in the studio for a full hour and a half.

For people who don't like this kind of stuff, it's really boring.But those who like it will go deep into the world full of philosophical thoughts with the protagonist.

Gu Kai is in between the two, neither like nor dislike.

But because of the special role of the leading actor, he was very devoted to it.

There is no doubt about the actor's line skills, and the rich and intense emotions can instantly bring the audience into the play.

The paranoid and egotistical Rothko is a pure artist. Gu Kai is an art student, has heard of this painter, and has seen Rothko's works live.

Rothko likes to use simple color blocks and lines to convey human emotions and deeply express people's spiritual connotation.

People who don't understand will just sneer, thinking that this is the graffiti work of children, but his works are far from that simple.

What made Gu Kai more concerned was that this great painter also suffered from depression, and eventually cut off his own artery with a razor and committed suicide.

Rothko turned on the light, and the bright light instantly filled the studio. He asked Kan again: "What did you see?"

Kan couldn't open his eyes, and replied, "I only see white."

"What does white make you think of?"

"Bones, skeletons, morgues...anemia...cruel."

"How does white make you feel?"

"fear."

"why?"

"Like the white snow outside the house...inside the house my parents died. It was winter. I remember the white snow outside the window: white..."

In the play, Kan witnessed the scene of his parents being murdered when he was seven years old, and has left a psychological shadow ever since.

There was a burst of music in the theater, Gu Kai heard it familiar, and then remembered that it was Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major.

Rothko liked Mozart and Schubert.

The quiet and elegant piano sound has a mysterious flavor, like the sound echoing in the basement in a quiet castle night.

Then the violin, cello, oboe and other orchestral instruments sounded at the same time. The elegance of the violin, the calmness of the cello, and the brightness of the oboe, together with the sound of the piano, played a moving movement together.

Afterwards, the music gradually became lighter, exuding Mozart's unique poetic flavor and liveliness.

Gu Kai, who has always loved classical music, was so preoccupied that he even ignored the performance on the stage.

His favorite musician is Bach. Although he has heard many pieces by Mozart, he never thought this piece was so good before.

When he came back to his senses, Rothko had already started painting.

But as he drew, the abstract artist fell into deep thought, frantically saying to himself: "What does it need?"

"Red." Kan interjected next to him.

His words interrupted Rothko's creation in an instant, and the inspiration flowed away.

Roscoe became irritable, grabbed a few boxes of red paint and threw it at Kan, yelling:

"Red! I don't even know what red means to me, do you mean scarlet, or crimson? Fuchsia pink magenta...it's all red, what is red?"

"I mean sunrise."

"Sunrise is not red."

"Sunrise is red, and red is sunrise," Kem insisted.

"Red is the heartbeat, red wine, red roses."

"The midnight fire of Creston, the sun of Rousseau's Isle..."

"Viscera, flames, dead Fauvists, slashed wrists, blood in arteries."

"Santa Claus."

"Satan."

So... red.

Really red.

They started painting together, splashing a lot of red paint, paint splashed on their hair, faces, clothes...

The huge canvas was finally filled with red rectangle patterns.

The two sat on the ground panting, staring at the canvas.

Pei Wen—that is, Kan, suddenly looked down at his hands, which were covered with red oil paint, as if they were covered with blood.

He looked at the canvas, then at his hands, and with a frightened expression on his face, he got under the table and held his head.

"What's the matter?" Rothko asked him, smoking a cigarette.

Kan recalled seeing his parents die at the age of seven.

He saw his parents with knives stuck in their throats, blood flowing all over the bed and splashing all over the walls, and his sister was staring at them.

Seven-year-old Kan grabbed the doorknob, slammed the door shut, and found blood on his hands, too.

Just like now, hands full of bright red.

Pei Wen was so devoted on the stage, the horror on his face, the pain in his eyes, his body stiffened by fear, his difficult voice...everything was as real as if he had really seen that scene.

Gu Kai didn't like Pei Wen playing such a role, because although it was acting, Pei Wen's pain was real.

He didn't like to see Pei Wen feel uncomfortable.

Shocked by Pei Wen's performance, Gu Kai didn't pay much attention to the following content.

However, at the end, Rothko returned the sky-high salary, fired Kan, cut his own arteries alone in the dim studio, and spread blood mixed with red oil paint on the white canvas.The scene where oil paint flows down like blood and fills the canvas is still shocking to the point of speechlessness.

In the theater, some people even cried.

Watching the actors exit and call the curtain call, the two leading actors, including Pei Wen, had already adjusted their state and bowed to the audience with a smile on their faces, as if the pain just now was just an illusion.

Gu Kai followed the crowd out of the theater in a trance, but stood outside the theater and did not leave.

He lit a cigarette in the night, brushing his cheeks slightly coolly.

With a cigarette in his left hand and his right hand in his pocket, Gu Kai stared at the black night sky in this strange city at night.

He remembered a painting by Rothko.

The content of the painting is very simple, only divided into two color blocks, the upper part is pure and rich black, the lower part is off-white, and there is a blurred boundary between the two - this is Rothko's characteristic.

Rothko's early paintings still had some bright and bright colors, but in the later period, the colors used became darker and darker, and the overall atmosphere constructed was full of melancholy.

He would even fill the canvas in large swathes of black, just like the painting he remembered.

To some extent, Pei Wen is also an artist, what he pursues is drama.

He also suffers from depression.

Is the world he sees similar to that of Rothko?The same gloomy, full of tragedy?

Gu Kai couldn't think of a result.

"Gu Kai?"

Suddenly there was a hesitant voice behind him.

Gu Kai's body froze, and he realized that it was not Pei Wen, but Zhu Shaohui who came.

Gu Kai turned his head.

"It's really you?" Zhu Shaohui smiled, "Why didn't you tell us that you're here, come together?"

"I don't want to be your light bulb." Gu Kai greeted Feng Qing with a smile.

Zhu Shaohui didn't feel embarrassed.

"You can also find your boyfriend," Zhu Shaohui said, "Why are you squatting here and not going in to find him?"

Gu Kai was silent for a while.

"What happened?" Zhu Shaohui knew Gu Kai very well, and his intuition was not right.

"Yeah." Gu Kai didn't deny it, "We broke up."

"This..." Zhu Shaohui froze for a moment, looking at his wife.

"Why?" Feng Qing was also very surprised, and asked, "Aren't you in a good relationship? Why did you break up? It's too sudden?"

There was a lady there, Gu Kai pinched his cigarette, let out a breath, and said slowly:

"It's his intention. The specific reason... I don't know too well, he didn't say."

Feng Qing frowned: "Did something happen to him? There must be a reason."

Gu Kai rubbed his temples.

Zhu Shaohui could obviously guess what Gu Kai was thinking, he didn't like to be entangled, so he patted Gu Kai on the shoulder:

"Forget it, since it's all divided, brother will accompany you to drink some wine?"

Gu Kai smiled and shook his head: "No, I'll just adjust it myself, you should take your wife and continue playing."

"Really?" Zhu Shaohui was a little worried. Now that they had broken up, Gu Kai chased him over to watch Pei Wen's performance, obviously not letting go, "Don't say that I value sex over friends."

"It's all right." Gu Kai punched him, "Who am I, don't you know?"

"Didn't I buy a ticket before, so I came to see it? I didn't chase here on purpose, don't worry."

He lied.

"Okay." Zhu Shaohui hammered Gu Kai's shoulder, "Then remember to call me if you need anything."

"Ah."

After the two said goodbye, Zhu Shaohui took Feng Qing away.

Gu Kai didn't leave. He stood at the entrance of the theater for a long time. After finishing his second cigarette, he went to the parking lot and sat in his car to lose himself.

He didn't know what he wanted to do either.

Perhaps, he wanted to see Pei Wen.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, Gu Kai saw Pei Wenwen and the senior on the stage and other members of the troupe walking out of the theater together.

The author has something to say: Lines are taken from Michael Grandage's "Red", with changes.

感谢在2021-02-1219:35:02~2021-02-1319:35:45期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angel of irrigation nutrient solution: Ah Jiu 2 bottle;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!