Venue: Multi-functional Theater 

Dates: December 31-January 06, 2018

About

In the summer of 1999, Rhinoceros in Love started an upsurge of experimental theater in Beijing, and was honored as “the bible of love for young generation”. While the national performing market was in decline after the outbreak of SARS in 2003, Rhinoceros in Love was performed in Beijing and Shanghai as a bailout of the drama stage, achieving a great success. In 2004, Rhinoceros in Love was performed over 100 hundred times throughout the year and created a miracle in contemporary Chinese experimental theater circle. In 2008, Honeycomb Theater was built in Beijing for performing a new version of Rhinoceros in Love. In 2014, the production team returned to the NCPA stage with Rhinoceros in Love, and brought the love story for the audience.

Playwright's Note

To love is for your own good. Though no one actually deserves the love you give at the cost of losing everything, love can help you see through the various false illusions in life, and reach out to the world as well as the part of your inner world that you might have never noticed. It vitalizes all your senses and kills all your languor. It takes off your worldly outfit so as to expose the truest and tenderest part of your heart to others, a process which no doubt entails pain. But what do we live for if we cannot feel people and the world in the most direct way?

LIAO Yimei

Credits

Playwright: LIAO Yimei

Director: MENG Jinghui

Cast

MA Lu: ZHANG Juncheng

Mingming: LIU Junyi

Toothbrush: ZHANG Zhiming

Heizi: ZHANG Hongyu

Agent: XU Wenxuan

Professor: LIU Hongfei

Daxian: WANG Yudi

Honghong: HAN Jing

Dandan: LI Jingwen

Lili: WEI Xi

Linlin: CHEN Lin

Synopsis

Rhinoceros in Love tells about a man falling in love with a woman and doing everything he can for her. The male protagonist MA Lu is a monomaniac in others’ eyes, and used to over-exaggerating his differences from woman to woman, as his friends have assumed. He may be called a rhinoceros, namely as an unsocial man, in today’s world, where everybody else is wise in making choices. By being “wise” is meant not to do anything impossible, illogical or thankless. In modern society, where are full of possibilities and choices, everyone can find their right place and a wise balance. Yet, MA Lu is very “stubborn”, and he stands his ground. MA Lu persists personal ideas about everything, including love.

Creative

LIAO Yimei Playwright

LIAO Yimei is a Chinese scriptwriter and author in recent years. Graduating from the Central Academy of Drama of China, she now serves as a scriptwriter of the National Theater of China. Her drama Rhinoceros in Love was premiered by the Central Experimental Drama Theater in 1999, and its second performance was shown by the National Theater of China in 2003 and 2004. Her drama works Magic Mountain (premiered by Beijing Children's Art Theater Co. Ltd in 2005) and Aventure (premiered by National Theater of China in 2007) are very popular. In March 2005, her multi-media musical drama Amber made its debut at the Hong Kong Art Festival, later in Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, etc. Her film work Life and Death Plunder won gold award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, U.S.A.; Fly Like a Chicken Feather won Film Critics Award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival and won Special Award of Youth Jury at the Locarno International Film Festival; A Review of Dancing with You won Gold Award at the Women's Film Festival in U.S.A. She also wrote novels Pessimist’s Bouquet, Magic Mountain and script collection Amber & Rhinoceros in Love.

MENG Jinghui Director

MENG Jinghui founded Beijing Youth Theater Festival in 2008 and has served as artistic director since then. He is the director of National Theater of China. As the famous Chinese stage director, MENG Jinghui puts his creativity and diversified artistic style into full play.

He has directed many works, including Think of Worldly Pleasure, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Rhinoceros in Love, Head without Tail, Amber, In Illusion, Romantic Meeting, The Life Attitude of Two Dogs, Labyrinth and Magic Mountain. MENG also cultivates a large number of drama fans to infuse the energy into new diversification of Chinese drama stage. His film Chicken Poets is awarded with the FIPRESCI Critics Award of Hong Kong International Film Festival and Special Youth Jury Award of Locarno International Film Festival.