Lao She International Theater Festival Puts Beijing Center Stage

Actors perform on stage. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The second Lao She International Theater Festival concluded in Beijing on Nov 1, with a forum focusing on the theme of relationship among the city, its people and theaters.

"What's on stage needs to reflect life. Theater is inspired by the city and its people," said theater director Yi Liming at the forum held at the Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing.

The festival, named after celebrated Chinese novelist and playwright Lao She (1899-1966), one of China's most influential authors, was launched last year. It is jointly organized by Beijing Artists Management Corporation and Beijing Tianqiao Performance Arts Center.

As one of the most prominent figures of 20th-century Chinese literature, many of Lao She's works have been repeatedly adapted into various kinds of artistic forms, including plays, TV dramas and movies. His play Teahouse remains one of the most welcomed plays of the Beijing People's Art Theater.

The second Lao She International Theater Festival concluded in Beijing on Nov 1, with a forum focusing on the theme of relationship among the city, its people and theaters. [Photo provided to China Daily]

From Sept 9 to Oct 27, the festival staged 11 plays from China, France, Russia and Poland. The opening play was Lao She's Short Stories, a Chinese play based on six short stories written by Lao She. The stories, written between 1934 and 1935, are about the lives and struggles of ordinary people, such as a young couple who live from paycheck to paycheck and the relationship between neighbors. The play is directed and adapted by Fang Xu, a Beijing native, who has been adapting Lao She's works into stage productions since 2012.

"When I arrived in Beijing as a student of Peking University in 1956, I was impressed by the city, which I read in the books by Lao She at my hometown in Suzhou," said Zhu Xiangyuan, a scholar and former member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. "Now, the city has changed a lot. With the plays by Lao She, we can still recall the old Beijing."

The second Lao She International Theater Festival concluded in Beijing on Nov 1, with a forum focusing on the theme of relationship among the city, its people and theaters. [Photo provided to China Daily]