Adding depth to characters by subtracting plot

The Los Angeles-based Theater Movement Bazaar stages Anton's Uncles in Beijing and Shanghai. By singing, dancing and fighting, actors discuss their attitudes toward middle age, struggles and longing. Photos provided to China Daily

Kronis met Alger, who studied mechanical engineering and had worked in film and theater, in New York in 1996. They married and relocated to Los Angeles and formed Theater Movement Bazaar in 1997.

"The company is dedicated to theater that moves and its interdisciplinary approach, an exchange of ideas from any source," she says.

Their first show was almost entirely nonverbal. Text has gained more ground over the years, as the company has continued divining its own approach to combining text and movement.

It has added more media and technology, and has become more influenced by film and television during the past decade. But Kronis says "expression by means of physicality remains the core to our pursuit and continues to be researched and refined".

Kronis says she and her husband are familiar with some traditional Chinese theater forms but have been exposed to very little contemporary theater.

Their collaboration with Chinese theater producer Li Yanda on Cherry Jam, a new perspective on Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, was performed in the United States three years ago to great acclaim. So they hope to work with more contemporary Chinese theater talent, they say.

IF YOU GO

7:30 pm, Oct 29-Nov 3; 2:30 pm, Nov 2 and 3.

Chaoyang Culture Center, TNT Theater. 17, Jintaili, Chaoyangmenwai, Chaoyang district, Beijing.

400-610-3721.

7:30 pm, Nov 5-10; 2 pm, Nov 9 and 10.

Theater of 1933 Old Millfun, 611 Liyang Lu, Hongkou district, Shanghai,

400-888-1933.