New Vision Arts Festival 2006

Photos: Tan Shao Yuan

	27 - 28.10.2006 (Fri-Sat) 8pm	$200	$120
	Hong Kong Cultural Centre Studio Theatre

Programme duration is about 1 hour and 45 minutes without intermission
In Putonghua. Lyrics and dialogues with Chinese and English surtitles
A post-performance talk after each performance

Li Liuyi New Drama

Mu Guiying prepares for war and takes a purging ritual... At the altar she prays for wisdom from the ancestors and the dead. Phantoms appear, so real yet so elusive... The spirits of the dead are crying, blood is flying, staining the sky and opening up the earth. The Cosmos is filled with the stench of lives wasted in gory deaths.
Alive? Or dead? Or just caught in a fifth dimension? Day breaks. Another bright sunny day. Her loved ones disappear in thin air. The battle drums sound, thunderous and earth-shaking. History is to be rewritten. O pity, damnation, misery, and lament! To war – it's a life she is so used to. To live or to die – it's one same course for all. To take it as it comes – it's a state that transcends the mortal and the immortal. Women! Heroes!

In Mu Guiying , Beijing People's Art Theatre director Li Liuyi boldly turns traditional Peking opera on its head by ingeniously transporting its 'one table, two chairs' setting to contemporary small theatre. This new story combines Peking opera movements and aesthetics with daring, symbolic stage props to reflect the psychological dimensions of the legendary woman warrior.
An account of the final hours leading up to her famous military campaign, the drama depicts Mu Guiying's internal turmoil, revealing hatred and desire as well as bittersweet memories of her late husband and his heroic ancestors. The production features a contemporary score, by China's premier composer Guo Wenjing, that puts a modern spin on traditional Peking opera orchestration. Mu Guiying, is another masterpiece by avant-garde dramatist Li Liuyi, following The Peony Pavilion: A Spoiled Romance, and has already received critical acclaim in Beijing and Singapore. Get ready for the unexpected!

Playwright / Director:	Li Liuyi
Composer:	Guo Wenjing
Stage Designer:	Yan Long
Lighting Director:	Yi Liming
Costume Designer:	Cheng Shuyi
Cast:	Yingzi Wang Lijun Han Jianguang Liu Ziwei