He-Shen (FAE! ), the main character of the play Last Time, This Time, and Next Time by Yi-Kang Feng, is the character that I am performing. He-Shen was the First Royal Duke (- ), which was only level below the emperor of Qing dynasty. The first scene of Last Time and This Time starts with He-Shen describing his lake is his only friend and shifts to a tour guide (Unknown name) leading people to He-Shen’s mansion. The tour complains that he is not ready to marry his rich girlfriend, Coco, because he has another girlfriend.
The second scene He-Shen shows audience the story of the stone and his step-mother, which I am performing, and the tour starts to talk his second girlfriend, Apple, who works really hard in her restaurant. Apple hopes one day she could buy an small apartment and marry the tour. The third scene He-Shen talks the story of meeting his step-mother and watching her death, and the tour starts to complain that he doesn’t know who he should marry. In the final scene of Last Time and This Time, He-Shen and the tour start to describe their wish and life lesson to each other (without face to face talking).
The scene ends with He-Shen being really sad and the tour leading people out from He-Shen’s mansion. Finally, Next Time was the story of someone died sinfully but who made the right decision before Anubis, God of Death, and went to heaven. The story of He-Shen was fictional, however, Feng has expressed the possible emotion of He-Shen as a child from poverty to the richest person. He-Shen’s role in the play was the person who made the decision Last Time in this mansion. He was the extreme rich person who had no family and friends.
On the other hand, the tour is the person who is making decision This Time of his marriage. He-Shen was a normal child with a well being family. As Feng created the story of his step-mother betrayal (his father and mother die young was true story), HeShen made arduous efforts to become the richest person of the Qing dynasty. To everyone, He-Shen was like a God who control anything he wants, who had money to do anything he wished, however, he owned everything and lost his true love and motivation.
He said that his lake was his only friend, who would never leak any secret, and the only thing he really wanted was his step-mother’s fry tofu, which he could never get again. He faced the conflicts of meeting his step-mother, who loved him like his real mother in the beginning. His mother did not save him when he was hanging on the edge of the well, and she betrayed him and took everything from him when his father died. The conflict to him was the report of the request to see him again by his step-mother. He brought the sharp stone of the well, which he hid for a decade, to his only friend.
Even thought he felt he should hate his mother, the lake finally suggested him to meet her. This is the courage, the courage to forgive a person who neglected his life. This is really hard decision. If I were him, I would hate to see who did not save my life. As the richest person, he could hire someone to do the “revenge” for him, but he did not. And this strong courage helped to see the truth and the thing he really wanted. He-Shen went to meet his mother. She told him that she hated him for her entire life because of the prophesy a priest.
The prophesy of he would be a boy, house would be on fire, mother died at age three, and father died at age seven all became true. She feared this curse when she was pregnant, so she wanted to escape from He-Shen’s curse by not saving him then ran after her husband’s death. He-Shen was shocked and crying out that: “Who is so stupid? Why does he still want to call you ‘mother’! ” After she died, He-Shen realized that he had truly lost everything. He-Shen states: “The only thing I really want is her fry tofu. ” then he tossed the tower of his mother when they met into his lake.
The loneliness shows that no matter how rich you become, there are things you can never get again. The play shows the comparison between Last Time and This Time at the lake was a meaningful lesson to teach the audience. The tour keeps saying he wants Coco, Apple, money, power, and everything, while He-Shen is the example of someone who owns everything but loses the true things he wants. The lessen wants the audience to know that the dream we are pursuing requires the right decision. One might end up like He-Shen, who have everything but cannot get the love of family.
