The play "Jin Zhongdu", originally created by the National Centre for the Performing Arts, focuses on key milestones in the history of Beijing's capital establishment. It tells the story of Emperor Wanyan Liang of the Jin Dynasty, who, against public opinion, moved the capital to Yanjing (now Beijing). With the grandeur of drama, it depicts the more than 870 year history of Beijing's capital establishment. This is the first installment of the "Beijing Capital Trilogy". The series begins with "The Golden Capital", with "The Capital of the Yuan Dynasty" as the middle chapter and "The Forbidden City" as the final chapter, aiming to outline the magnificent historical trajectory of the ancient capital Beijing through stage art. The director of the drama, Wang Ruitan, said that even native Beijingers' understanding of the "Golden Capital" mostly stops at the surface level of "knowing its name", which shows the importance of creating this drama. As the prologue of the trilogy, "The Golden Capital" not only brings to the stage the crucial historical moment when Beijing became the capital of the dynasty for the first time in 1153, but also artistically presents the long forgotten but crucial historical turning point - the relocation of the capital by the Jin Dynasty. The director incorporated the traditional Chinese opera's percussion art into the play, using a highly rhythmic sound effect design to tap into the characters' inner world, externalizing their emotional fluctuations and cleverly creating a stage atmosphere; At the same time, the work breaks the boundaries of artistic categories, integrating the essential characteristics of drama with the vocabulary of film shots, constructing spatial layers through the strong contrast of light and shadow, and using the delicate presentation of music to drive emotional rhythm. Screenwriter Xiong Zhaozheng, the winner of the Mao Dun Literature Award for his long historical novel "The Great Jin Dynasty," fused the creative accumulation of the long historical novel into the script, but also encountered the emotional dilemma of the creator: how to accept Wan Yanliang, a historical figure often labeled as a "villain" in traditional historical books, in artistic expression. It is precisely this struggle and speculation in creation that ultimately refines the rich texture of the characters on stage: Wan Yan Liang in the play is neither a stereotypical hero nor a flattened villain, but a historical figure carrying contradictions and aspirations. The portrayal of Wanyan Liang by Zu Yongchen can be regarded as the soul of the entire drama. With superb acting skills, he created a complex image that combines great talent and human fragility: from the fiery ambition when drawing up the blueprint for building the city, to the solitary courage and determination when reaching the peak of power, to the sadness and desolation when people are betraying and leaving, the audience sees the rise and fall of a monarch. Before the finale, Wan Yanliang had a lengthy monologue analyzing his own inner thoughts. This line was full of poetry and philosophical thinking, pushing the entire play to a climax. Sarina plays the role of Lao Guotai Wulu, who is the guardian of traditional order. Every confrontation between her and Wan Yanliang is a fierce collision between the forces of innovation and conservatism. The duet between the two is full of dramatic tension, condensing grand historical choices into fiery family conflicts, making distant historical events accessible and empathetic. Jin Zhongdu replaces realistic depiction with the beauty of freehand brushwork, creating a unique stage aesthetics. The creator uses a grand and majestic stage meaning to help the audience complete the artistic transformation of that period of history. The stage art design abandons the traditional historical drama's heavy background concept of "replicating real scenes", and uses highly condensed visual symbols and dynamic spatial scheduling to build an artistic bridge connecting the rise of the Jurchen ethnic group and the changes in the capital city of Jinzhong for the audience, showcasing the grandeur of history and the subtlety of human nature between reality and virtuality. Clothing design also upholds respect for history and the reconstruction of art. All clothing is based on Jin Dynasty murals and unearthed cultural relics, while being reconstructed with modern design language, allowing historical figures to retain the true texture of time and radiate the artistic brilliance of contemporary aesthetics. Under the modern landmarks of Guang'anmen and Caihuying in Beijing today are the former city walls of Jinzhongdu. This city, in its ever-changing self-renewal, carries the memory of history and continues the thread of civilization. The creative team of "Jin Zhongdu" not only conducted on-site sampling at the Jin Zhongdu sites in Xicheng, Fangshan, and Fengtai in Beijing, but also went to Acheng District in Harbin, the former location of Jin Shangjing, for on-site research. This reverence and pursuit of historical sites demonstrates the responsibility of artistic creation. Of course, the work also has something to discuss: some of the supporting role are slightly functional, and the excavation of the character's motivation and emotional dimensions is still not deep enough, which has weakened the emotional impact of the drama to a certain extent. In addition, some lines in the play are too modern in language, which can easily make the characters and audience appear in the play, requiring further consideration. At present, the performance has lasted nearly 3 hours (including halftime), and the narrative rhythm is slightly sluggish. We hope that in the next polishing, the play will show a more perfect state. (New Society)