Devil's advocate

He was drawn to the production by the strength of the cast, which includes veteran actor Yi Zhusheng, and its director-established Lithuanian theater director Rimas Tuminas.

In the Chinese version of the play, Liao plays the role of Mephistopheles, the demon, while Yi plays the role of Faust.

Long considered a masterpiece, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's epic two-part tragedy took the German poet and dramatist 64 years to complete from 1768 to 1832. It was published in 1832, the year of his death.