Theater festival brings world stage to Huichang

On summer evenings in Huichang, a small county in Jiangxi province, residents have long gathered beneath two sprawling banyan trees to escape the heat and chat with neighbors, much as generations before them did.

In recent years, however, they have gained another pastime: attending theater performances.

That change is largely tied to one of Huichang's most famous sons, acclaimed theater director Stan Lai, who returned to his ancestral hometown on May 29 to open the latest edition of the Huichang Theater Festival.

The 10-day event, known as Huichang Theater Season 004, brings together nearly 30 productions from China and abroad and close to 400 performances. During the opening ceremony, Lai and invited guests ceremonially watered the festival's symbolic banyan tree, officially launching this year's program.

The opening celebration featured a mix of local and international performances, including a traditional lion dance by a youth group from Ningde in Fujian province, Huichang's local tea-picking opera, and an accordion performance by a French theater troupe.

Singer-songwriter Ara Kimbo, often known as the "father of Taiwan folk music", also returned to Huichang for a second year. Before performing, he told the audience he had traveled from Taiwan's Pacific coast and brought a song, Beautiful Rice Ears, to call young people back home and remind them that the annual theater gathering had returned.

Lai's father was born in Huichang, but Lai himself was born in the United States. He first visited Huichang in the 1990s after receiving a letter from relatives. Since 2015, he has brought at least one production to the town each year. In 2024, he joined his wife, producer Ding Nai-chu, and actress Ni Ni to launch the annual theater season.

"A play you might normally see in Beijing, Shanghai or overseas can now be seen here in Huichang," Lai said.

The festival runs through June 7. This year's opening production is Hedda Gabler, the classic play by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, directed by American director Travis Preston.

The festival also coincides with the 40th anniversary of Lai's landmark play Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring. Multiple versions of the work will be staged, along with its companion piece, River/Cloud.

In addition to performances, the festival features master classes, workshops and public discussions, drawing artists, theatergoers and visitors from across China and beyond