Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Beijing Fringe

A couple of years ago in Edinburgh I met a Chinese dramatist, Wu Zhuhong. Last week I got an invitation from her out of the blue, inviting me to her new play, Ming Qiang An Jian, in the experimental space within the People's Art Theatre. It's actually an interpretation of a Canadian play from 20 years ago, Three in the Back, Two in the Head  by Jason Sherman, but translated and set in China. It's an odd choice for China - a story loosely based on the life of Gerald Bull, the maverick weapons designer who would have delivered Saddam Hussein his supergun had someone not silenced him. Performed in Chinese, I didn't really get a lot of it, the plot was changed and it was minimal in the extreme - a desk, two chairs, basic lighting - but it was good to see young Chinese packing an experimental theatre space watching something very leftfield. 

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