Shows

Kinky Boots

Date: Aug 24-Sept 6 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center

Inspired by true events, Kinky Boots takes audiences from a gentlemen's shoe factory in Northampton to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. Charlie Price is struggling to live up to his father's expectations and continue the family business of Price & Son. With the factory's future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola, a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos. This joyous musical celebration is about the friendships we discover and the belief that you can change the world when you change your mind.

Schaubuehne Berlin: An Enemy of the People

Date: Sept 6-8 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts

Berlin's esteemed Schaubuhne theater presents a radically revised adaptation of An Enemy of the People, Ibsen's potent 1882 drama about individual and social responsibility. The story of a whistleblower in a small town whose efforts to speak truth to power are shut down by his self-interested neighbors, the play both implicates and exhilarates its audience in a conversation about the perils of democratic capitalism. Directed by Thomas Ostermeier, for decades a leading creative voice and provocateur in the European theater, the production has received strong reactions from audiences and critics alike, largely because of its controversial handling of the play's climactic scene.

Three-Body Problem in Shenzhen

Date: Oct 12-14 - 8 pm

Venue: Friendship Theater

During the "culture revolution" (1966-76), astronomer Ye Wenjie after going through all the hardships of life is recruited into "Red Coast Base", a top-secret military base. She uses the sun as a transmitter and sends a message to the outer space, making a breakthrough in the search for extraterrestrial civilization. Three stars move unpredictably, so for four light years Trisolaran civilization underwent total destruction and rebirth and now forced to flee from their parent star. Just at this time, they receive a message from the Earth. Ye Wenjie, who lost her hope for humankind, exposes the Earth coordinates to Trisolarans, thus absolutely changing the fate of mankind! Thirty-six years later, the Earth's basic scientific research faces abnormal interference. Nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao tries to find the answers by playing a mystical online game called "Three-body". While participating at the player's meeting, he finds out that the Earth is awaiting the arrival of Trisolarans and they have established a secret organization ETO (Earth-Trisolaris Organization), approaching the truth of Trisolaran world step by step.

Wagner Opera: Der fliegende Hollander

Date: Shanghai Grand Theater

Venue: Sept 13-15 - 7:15 pm

Der fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) was Richard Wagner's fourth full-length opera and his first considered masterpiece. And it's fitting that the opera that helped to cement the controversial composer's legacy deals with a familiar maritime tale - the legend of the Flying Dutchman. Wagner's version retells the haunting story of an undead ship captain doomed to an endless journey across the seas. His wandering will not cease until he can find and keep a faithful and true love - an accomplishment put even further out of reach, considering he can only come ashore once every seven years. Wagner was just 29 when he conducted the world premiere of Der Fliegende Hollander in Dresden. But as his compositional skills had continued to develop, he would revisit his earlier masterpiece several times for revisions.

National Theater& NTC: War Horse

Date: Aug 18-Sept 9 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Theater of China

A collaboration between the National Theatre of the UK and the National Theatre of China brings the Mandarin version of War Horse to Beijing, with a starring-role puppet you can't believe is made of cane and nylon. At the outbreak of World War I, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the Cavalry and shipped to France. He's soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary journey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. Albert, who remained on his parents' Devon farm, cannot forget Joey. Although still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find Joey and bring him home. Based on the beloved novel by Michael Morpurgo, this powerfully moving and imaginative drama, filled with stirring music and songs, is a show of phenomenal inventiveness. At its heart are astonishing life-size horses by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage.