Listings

NT Live No Man's Land in Shanghai

Date: Dec 25 - 7 pm

Venue: Shanghai Drama Art Center

Price: 150 yuan

Following their hit run on Broadway, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart return to the West End stage in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land, broadcast live to cinemas from Wyndham's Theatre, London. One summer's evening, two aging writers, Hirst and Spooner, meet in a Hampstead pub and continue their drinking into the night at Hirst's stately house nearby. As the pair become increasingly inebriated, and their stories increasingly unbelievable, the lively conversation soon turns into a revealing power game, further complicated by the return home of two sinister younger men. Also starring Owen Teale and Damien Molony, don't miss this glorious revival of Pinter's comic classic. The broadcast will be followed by an exclusive Q&A with the cast and director Sean Mathias.

Contact: 400-610-3721

Beijing Kunqu Opera - Two Belles in Love

Date: Dec 28-29 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Zhengyici Theater

Price: 80-880 yuan

Two Belles in Love is a lesbian-themed Chinese opera based on a 350-year-old play by Li Yu. The 2010 production was headed by Stanley Kwan, the first openly gay film director in the Chinese cinema scene. The premiere marked a shift in representations of homosexuality in contemporary China which did not remove homosexuality from the list of official mental illnesses until 2001. Publicity for the production plastered the city with imagistic challenges to the heteronormative visual landscape. The premier coincided a wider trend reviving the practice of male performers portraying female roles, discouraged since Communist victory in 1949. I analyze the production and its reception as examples of xiqu (Chinese opera) receiving comparatively more official and cultural leeway than other modes of cultural production to portray sexual diversity on the post-Mao Chinese stage. Many famous Beijing Opera players were also great performers of Kunqu Opera. Skilling in both operas was a remarkable respect of achievement. It was common for a joint performance in Beijing Opera or Kunqu Opera which involved actors and actresses from both sides. Mei Lanfang was famous for his sensitive portrayal of Du Liniang. The most famous actress of recent years is likely Zhang Jiqing's traditional approach out of Nanjing's Jiangsu province Kun Opera.

Contact: 400-610-3721

Off-Broadway Musical Thrill Me - Chinese Version

Date: Dec 24-31 - 7:30 pm

Venue: China Welfare Institute Children's Theater

Price: 180-320 yuan

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff. It is based on the true story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, the so-called "thrill killers" who murdered a young boy in 1924 in order to commit "the perfect crime." The story is told in flashbacks, beginning with a 1958 parole hearing.

The show premiered with a small production at the 2003 Midtown International Theater Festival in New York City. It was then staged as a larger Off-Broadway production in 2005 by the York Theatre Company in association with Jim Kierstead. Since then, Thrill Me was published by Dramatists Play Service, recorded on CD by Original Cast Records, and has been staged in a variety of US and international cities.

Contact: 400-610-3721