Throwing themselves into their acting work

Despite the different backgrounds of the actors, both Zhuang and Luo Fuxing say that the cast has developed a camaraderie, with each member of the team working hard to ensure the smooth production of the play.

For Luo Fuxing, the lack of professional acting experience was offset by an "assembly line" approach to the show, comprising long hours and muscle memory. Zhuang says that Luo Fuxing was almost always the first one to arrive at the rehearsal room and the last one to leave, because they had additional one-on-one sessions at the end of the day.

Luo Fuxing says that he was simply being himself, even when acting as Shi Jin, but that was precisely the effect Zhuang wanted. The fluctuation between truth and fiction embodies, to him, the charm of theater.

Although most of the time the play went well, Luo Fuxing says that, during one performance, there was a point onstage when he made a couple of mistakes, and suddenly wanted to quit acting out of sheer irritation. However, upon hearing the lines of the other actors, he instinctively returned to the stage and continued acting.

"Theater is like an assembly line. I got back the factory worker's body I had abandoned for many years, and pieced together the worker's soul I had shattered. That moment, I believed in the power of theater," he says.

"I feel that I'm very lucky to have met the director and the actors. Although I didn't like theater, I got to know about these eccentric people. We really hit it off."

Zhuang expresses a similar view about the play allowing their life paths to cross and, after staging the play, he feels its title is incredibly apt.