From April 15 to May 21, the “2016 Wuzhen Spring Drama Exhibition” will be held in Wuzhen. Six classic dramas will be presented. Each weekend, a classic drama will be offered in the Wuzhen Grand Theatre. During the same period, the "Utopia-Heterotopia/Art Wuzhen" will also be launched, making it possible for people to "watch the exhibition during the day and enjoy the plays at night" and creating an unprecedented audio-visual art feast for Wuzhen in the spring.

In April, are you ready to go to Wuzhen?

If Wuzhen is a Utopia during the festival, then the Wuzhen in spring is more like a pastoral painting. In spring, Wuzhen shows a landscape typical of a riverside town. When spring comes, the land is covered by vegetation. Under the warm sunshine and amid gentle breeze, all things wake up on the expansive land as far as you could see. Stepping on an old stone bridge, you can see the mottled, ancient walls in distance. Amid the thin mist, you might image that a fine lady with an oil-paper umbrella comes over, passes by, and disappears around a corner. You can also row a boat on the Xishi River and enjoy the blue ripples and the swimming fish amidst the reflection of trees. It is amazing to enjoy meals, take a walk, have a cup of tea, chat, and watch drama in such a dreamlike pastoral scene. Are you ready for that?

6 high-quality dramas gathered in Wuzhen, and the “Wuzhen Spring Drama Exhibition” was a visual feast.

"2016 Wuzhen Spring Drama Exhibition" has prepared 6 wonderful dramas for tourists, especially art lovers, the most exciting offering presented by the old town as a hot spot of arts. Each of the six dramas has unique characteristics and echoes with each other. They cover almost all the types and forms of dramas in modern times. The classics of masters and new works of budding dramatists are combining to offer a splendid scene at the drama exhibition.

Classic Drama

Spring is a season for lovers, when even the air is filled with romance. In this drama exhibition, "Ma Lu" and "Ming Ming" will grace Wuzhen with a classic drama Rhinoceros in Love, which is regarded as the love bible of the younger generation. As the first program for the opening ceremony , the drama will present a "Love Bible" for the "Wuzhen Spring Drama Exhibition". Let us wait and see!

Serious Drama

There is no exaggerated stage expression, no brilliant multimedia effects, and no famous director or screenwriter. The Face of Chiang Kai-shek, created by a young scriptwriter when he was still a junior student, was well received throughout the country with great success, a miracle for a budding playwright. Are you interested in such a campus drama that created a miracle?

Loot, billed as a masterpiece of contemporary British drama, is actually a bizarre comedy, where British playwright Wooten gave full play to his genius in farce. Director Yang Ting led a strong creation team to use a surreal stage, the most excellent lighting, absurd yet interesting costumes, and superb music, creating a crazy comedy party. Under the seemingly simple plot, you can see hidden intricate relationships of characters, fierce collision of morality and greed, and absurdity and irony.

New Works of Budding Dramatists

As the only new drama of the 2016 Wuzhen Spring Drama Show, The Golden Dragon will premiere on May 13 at the Wuzhen Grand Theatre. It was written by Roland Schimmelpfennig, a pioneering German playwright of experimental drama, and directed by cutting-edge drama director Chen Feili (Macau) and actor Miao Ge. It tells a chaotic story happened in a Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant. What about the fate of different kinds of people in the cramped, dirty, messy environment? The drama features an absurd ending, ironic dialog, longing for a family, and desire for cultural identity.

Classic Comedy

The famous drama director Meng Jinghui's masterpiece Two Dogs has performed more than 1,500 sessions since it premiered in 2007 for a total of one million audiences, thus being billed as “a representative work of China’s modern comedy”. During the third Wuzhen Theatre Festival, “Two Dogs” was performed in the Water Theater for 10 days. People in Wuzhen heard laughter from the Water Theater every night. Data showed that during the two-hour performance, "630 bursts of laughter and 140 rounds of applause" broke out among the audience, which proved the quality of the drama Two Dogs.

Female One-man Show

The most wonderful touch of the drama Letter from an Unknown Woman, based on the novel of Zweig, is its form as a female one-man show. The director broke the original structure of the work, and the actress displayed the madness and despair of love with "three times of cooking and three times of sex" of a strange woman. One actress, two hours, seven dishes, ten characters, and twelve original songs will ensure the most exciting enjoyment in hearing, taste, and vision in the Wuzhen Grand Theatre.

More than Drama in This Spring

In Wuzhen this spring, we will offer bigger surprise, namely watching art exhibitions during the day and watching plays at night. From March 28 to June 26, the “Art Wuzhen” will be held in Wuzhen, which will showcase works of 40 (groups of) modern artists from 15 countries. Meanwhile, “Art Wuzhen” will also launch various public education activities free of charge, and everyone is welcome.

In this spring, 2016 Wuzhen Spring Drama Exhibition is here for you! In daytime, you can enjoy exhibitions of contemporary artists from around the world, at night, you can enter the most charming theater for modern drama.