When a middle-aged imaginative trader who has just been released from prison and a younger photographer who has a strong empathy for others meet in an empty subway, what do we expect?
Probably nothing, some would say. Indeed, we have been so used to the hollow dreary city life and the indifference people display in public places, that even an empty subway carriage that seats only two people won't seem to allow much to happen - people just won't talk to each other.
But what if we make the trader a male, and the photographer a female? Love, many would suggest - they could fall in love at first sight, if they find each other deadly attractive. A close guess, albeit not really what Julian Gelas, director of Station Liberte, had in mind.
"It is a play about love, but it is not produced for love's sake," said Julian. "In fact, I want to arouse in people that the clear psychological line they draw from one another could be erased, and there's always the possibility they just break free and let things happen."
Station Liberte, after being held at Beijing's Penghao Theatre in May, is now on stage at Peking University from Sept 21 to Sept 23. Since its debut, it has won praise from the audiences. On Monday, Julian Gelas gave an interview to China Daily website, and shared with us other themes related to liberte - the central focus of the play.
Embracing romance, you need to be liberal
"As a French, I value liberte, egalite and fraternite a lot. Liberte always comes first, it is something that no one can deprive me of," Julian said, adding such value orientations were the basis for arriving at the idea of Station Liberte.
As the son of director Gerald Gelas, who introduced him to a group of free-thinking, unbiased and unguarded people while he was young, Julian also had such traits grow in him, and that he want to depict such people to pass on such traits and spirits.
According to Julian, the concrete idea of the play was a natural flow of intuition, which didn't land on him until a period in 2012 - a time when he commuted a lot on subway and got the chance to "observe people".
"Most people on subways are reading, and they seldom talk. People seem so aloof and it makes me feel oppressed," Julian said. "So, as an artist, I want to bring to consciousness this annoying fact to more people, and seek ways to influence them, hoping that things would change for the better," he said.
In the play, Julian created those two contrasting people - a charming and once promising trader who was framed up by his company for a debt mess and ended up in prison for four years, and a gorgeous nomadic photographer who is empathetic enough to feel other's pain.
With the trader initiating a conversation, and the photographer following him to a more productive talk, love was kindled along the way –"when two open hearts exchange their spiritual worlds, love begins to grow."
"What's on my mind is that, when we are not afraid to expose what we think, become less hostile to strangers, we may embrace new possibilities - romance is just one of them," Julian said.
Despair could also harbor freedom
"I have also encountered despair, I know how it tastes," Julian said, adding this is the one thing that he has in common with the male character in Station Liberte.
"Despair is not all that pessimistic. Actually I find it to be very interesting - it causes you pain, yet it also gives you freedom. It is a state of mind where you desire for nothing, a situation where you seek no alternative ways to change."
Modern life is what bestowed Julian the feeling of despair. On the one hand, he finds modern life adorable -"it is convenient, and you can do a lot of things with all those high-techs"; on the other hand, he felt grappled by the overwhelming materialism that is almost suffocating spirits.
"I used to ask my friend, if a great philosopher like Russell, or a great poet like Shakespeare lived in today's world, would he be discovered? I doubt that - spirituality has gone so far from our society, and we're not able to fully enjoy them anymore."
It is an alienated world Julian said he alone can't change - the cyber space, in particular, offered innocent citizens to voice their anger and "it is a world where stupidity has its thought."
Julian said that's one of the reasons he felt the urge to think before he say or do anything. "I appreciate what Confucius has taught us -Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous," he said.
"You can do whatever you want, say whatever you like to, as long as it doesn't break the law. Yet, what you say and do is it really useful to the society? You have to think about that."
Zhuang Zhou is my idol
In Julian's perspective, Zhuang Zhou (369-286 BC), among all other ancient Chinese philosophers, is the one that he looks up to the most, as he lived the most "secular" life – contrary to the "monastic" life Zhuang Zhou is known for.
"When people talk about secular life and monastic life, they refer to the distance that someone keeps from the society. In that sense, Zhuang Zhou did lead a monastic life because he chose to live in the mountain. But for me, he is the most secular, because he knows how to live a life, in his own will," said Julian, quoting a tale about Zhuang Zhou to illustrate the point.
"The king of the Chu Kingdom (475-221 BC) had sent two men to engage Zhuang Zhou to be a political consultant, but he refused. He said he's like a turtle, which would rather sway its tails in the mud pond than be kept in the brocade and worshiped in the temple."
Julian said in this respective, Zhuang Zhou knows the ultimate truth of living in the universe -to live your life to the fullest, you have to live in your own way, your most comfortable way.
"People like Zhuang Zhou are cool, I mean people who are willing to forsake some benefits to live in their free will is cool. And I'd like to live my life that way, I stand for liberty, I guard free will."
