In 2015, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and Gecko forged a partnership. In 2011, I corresponded with the U.K.’s National Youth Theatre about combining elements from Tang’s collection of plays titled “The Four Dreams of Linchuan” with Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The project never materialized, but the concept stayed in my mind.
Previously, I had toyed with the idea of blending the two playwrights’ works to create an original play. In memory of these two exceptional playwrights, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center created five works inspired by Tang and Shakespeare, the most groundbreaking of which was “The Dreamer.” Rehearsals for “The Dreamer” began in 2016, a year that marked the 400th anniversary of the deaths of two literary greats: the Ming Dynasty writer Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare. The performance garnered rave reviews from reputable media outlets like British entertainment weekly The Stage, the British Theatre Guide, and FringeReview, an online reviews publication focusing on lesser-known performances. The play’s dialogue relies mostly on physical acting combined with lines spoken in Chinese, without any subtitles. The effort was the result of a cooperation between the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and the United Kingdom’s Gecko Physical Theatre Company. In August, the stage play “The Dreamer” was performed for enthusiastic audiences at the Pleasance Theatre during the Edinburgh Art Festival.
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