Visitors to Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, are always advised to slow down, spend a sunny afternoon in a teahouse and then go to listen to the folk music qingyin or watch a Chuanju Opera in the evening.

This week, performing artists from Sichuan are in Beijing to offer fans a chance to taste the rich Sichuan folk culture.

The Sichuan Provincial Chuanju Opera Theater is presenting its signature repertoire The Brave Yi (Yi Danda) tonight at Tianqiao Theater. At the same venue tomorrow, there will be a special show featuring its prime actress Liu Yi.

Premiered in the early 1980s, The Brave Yi is set in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It tells about how the Chuanju actor Yi helps his fellow artists in a small Chuanju Opera team to fight against a despot.

Wei Minglun, a famous Chinese dramatist known for his unorthodox narrative style, penned the script some 20 years ago.

The play highlights all kinds of the hangdang different types of roles of the Chuanju Opera, and its costumes.

The new production is directed by Zha Mingzhe, an established drama director with China National Theater Company, whose recent credits include The Dawns Are Quiet Here (Zheli Liming Jingqiaoqiao), Death Without Burial (Si Wu Zangshen Zhidi) and The Monument (Jinianbei).

Zha, who earned a master's degree at the Russian National Academy of Theater and Arts in 1995, is known for his expertise in dealing with the cruel theme of war and for his in-depth and detached portrayal of human nature.

Outsiders may question whether Zha was the right choice for a Chuanju Opera, which is usually full of wit, humor and lively dialogue with a pronounced local flavor.

"Wei's story mixes dramatic happiness and dramatic grief. It is a great comedy-like tragedy," Zha said in response to criticisms.

But he was commissioned to do it and he accepted it, even though it is the first time he is directing a local opera.

"Some theater critics fear that the local opera play would lose its distinctive features, since we directors of the modern spoken drama do not have much knowledge of the local opera," Zha said.

But Zha pledges that he will "respect the unique style of the Chuanju Opera and try my best to bring the audience a true Chuanju Opera play."

At the same time, he would try to approach the story in a way that brings the play closer to modern life.

"After all, it is a play about the suffering life of the local opera artists in ancient China, but today's audience will find something to relate to so close to their own life," Zha said.

The veteran playwright Wei said he is very satisfied with Zha's revision on his scripts and believes the revival of the old repertoire will be better than the previous productions.

The Chuanju Opera is one of the oldest local operas, popular in Sichuan Province and some regions of Southwest China's Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

During the early years of the Qing Dynasty, there were five independent local operas simultaneously prevalent in the Sichuan area.

Over the years, they were gradually merged into what we now call Chuanju Opera.

Among them Gaoqiang (high pitch) is the richest, with a distinctive Sichuan local color. It is accompanied only by percussion and chorus without any wind or string instruments.

The Chuanju Opera has built its own system of stylized movements. Special characters use stunts such as immortals who have a third eye on their forehead that they can open suddenly to show their magic power; quick changes of facial characteristics without makeup; jumping through burning hoops, and hiding of swords.

The strength of Chuanju Opera lies in its comic genre, which is rich in content, vitality and bold farce, reflecting Sichuan people's special brand of humor.

(China Daily March 10, 2006)