A new role for Peking Opera

Photo provided to China Daily

"The content of the drama is the story of a poor soldier who is too weak to exist in the society. I see a link to our society: We suffer from a lot of pressure and we have to find ways to deal with it, and not to end in a desperate or even tragic situation," Peschke says.

The premiere of the show was successful. "The audience admired Wang Lu's skills, his strength of expression and his persuasive change of the characters," the director says.

Wang Lu, who started learning Peking Opera at the age of 13, plays wusheng, a male martial-arts role in Peking Opera. When he first saw the script, he was captivated by the idea of mixing Western classical work with Peking Opera.

"In Peking Opera, various body movements portray characters and advance the story. I used the same way to act different roles in Woyzeck," says the 32-year-old actor.

"With hundreds of years of evolution and development, Peking Opera is more than just a tradition but an art form, which keeps progressing."

His performance is accompanied by experimental live music from Bruce Gremo, composer and flutist, who moved from New York to Beijing in 2006.

The most challenging thing for Gremo is to learn Wang's habits as a Peking Opera actor.

"There are traditional techniques of cuing, coordinating, and anticipating between sound and movement. It means that I must follow him very closely, watching and playing at the same time," he says.

"What is interesting for me here, where everyone is already experienced at crossing genres, is that the blends are rich enough that you really start to have the sense of new forms, not simply the first introduction between strangers," he says.