Play of scenarios in love seeks to bemuse Beijing

The Chinese version of British play Constellations will be staged in Beijing this weekend.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Wang says that the script is simple and uses oral language. The length of the scenes range from several seconds to about five minutes. But even one minute is sufficient to demonstrate the relationship through a common segment of life, such as quarrelling.

"It's like what the cosmologist says - life is like throwing a dice 6,000 times. It has infinite possibilities and for most of the time, it's just about probabilities."

The last situation is that the woman has a fatal disease and the man accompanies her for euthanasia abroad. One possibility is that she insists on the "mercy killing", and it is done. The other situation is that the man asks her to give it up but fails.

"It's easy to understand and gives you infinite possibilities. The screenwriter touches you with the familiar details in a relationship. Audiences will have empathy for their joys and sorrows because they may encounter the same situation and recall their own memories," Wang says. "You may ponder over your own relationship and think about what kind of situation you and your partner want to be in."

Wang hopes audiences will be moved and can understand the meaning of life and love better.

Wang Yan, an adviser on the play, says: "There are different theories of parallel universes. For example, Schrodinger's 'cat paradox' in quantum mechanics. The cat may be simultaneously both alive and dead in different branches of the universe."

Better known by her pen name Xiao Zhuang, she is the chief editor of Guokr Reading from the popular Chinese science website Guokr.com.

Wang Yan says that the play dazzles audiences when they see the relationship develop into various results, and the cameras make the whole performance more impressive.

"There aren't sufficient original science play scripts in China, and some screenwriters may misunderstand the definition. It's likely there will be more science plays in the market, just like the popularity of such movies and novels," she adds.