A middle-aged professor mulls his life - his wife despises him; his student offers sexual favors so her thesis is passed; a prostitute is the only one who understands him, and he becomes entangled in a stranger's suicide.

"The Playground" may seem like a narration of a day in Professor Chi's life, set in a college campus, but is actually an analysis of a middle-aged man's introspection.

Veteran playwright Zou Jingzhi spent four years writing the play, revising it 11 times, and admits it became a search for his own soul.

"I have been walking alone in a college campus for the past five years and have found it to be a really interesting corner of the city. Too many stories happen there than we give credit for," says the 57-year-old.

"Even if I cannot say the play criticizes the intellectuals of my generation, it is at least a painful self-criticism.

"Every role in the play is me and I have every trouble that professor Chi has. I feel the suffering but believe that in it is a kind of hope that pushes people to think and improve themselves.

"In today's theater scene, audiences prefer comedies and soap operas; this is a time of entertainment and people don't want to look at anything painful."

"The Playground" has drawn more praise than the two other plays that Zou has written for the Beijing People's Art Theater - "I Love the Peach Blossom" and "The Lotus" - ever since the script was published in the literary magazine October last June.

"I don't know if it can be called an avant-garde play, but it is bold, and dark," says Chen Xiaoyi who plays all three female roles - Chi's wife, his student and the prostitute.

"Zou writes on subjects that people dare not touch. Many lines sound very bold," says the actress.

For any actor, playing multiple roles can be a great challenge. Zou settled on Chen after seeing her success with the title role in "The Lotus" last year. The lead actress of the Beijing People's Art Theater manages to move seamlessly between the three totally different roles.

In one scene, she is the wife who quarrels with Chi and coldly refuses his hug; in another, she is the snobbish graduate student who flirts with the professor but when spurned, laughs and taunts him, saying: "You want to but dare not." Then she changes into the kind prostitute who sympathizes with Chi but the professor cannot overcome his prejudice for such a woman.

Han Tongsheng, the lead actor of the National Theater Company of China, plays Professor Chi. "It's the first time that I have played a professor and I found it very hard," he says.

The play is the first production of The Dragon & Horse Drama Company (Long Ma She) founded by Zou and two other leading playwrights, Wan Fang and Liu Heng, last year.

"We three often met in the theaters and occasionally, we would talk about a play after the performance was over. Gradually, we found that we all loved drama and shared many views," says Wan, daughter of well-known Chinese playwright Cao Yu (1910-1996).

"We all felt that there were many plays that sold well, but after you laugh and leave the theater, you remember nothing. We wanted to do something that was not only entertaining but also thought-provoking," says Wan.

"Interestingly, my introduction to drama came not through theater, but through radio. When I was a little boy, I listened to many Chinese classical plays on radio and the stories fascinated me. When I began school, I sought out their scripts and read them," Zou recalls.

Han Tongsheng (left) and Chen Xiaoyi in "The Playground." [Jiang Dong]

"For me, the story and script are the most important to a play. We now have many plays with complicated plots, interesting approaches or very funny lines, but I have not seen many that tell really good stories or make a powerful impact on the audience.

"For example, Hamlet has been performed in different countries by different people for more than 400 years. Everybody knows the line 'To be or not to be' and I hope our company can also create such powerful works that will be performed year after year, generation after generation."

Zou, who has a long list of popular TV series and movies under his belt, can earn more than 2 million yuan ($292,000) from one TV series, but for plays, he even spends his own money to rent a rehearsal room.

"I do drama not for money but out of interest. Compared to a TV series or a movie, plays are much more challenging - the plot, lines and interplay of the different roles are all interesting and I really enjoy the challenge," he says.

"As an established playwright, Zou should have a very good life, but after watching 'The Playground,' I know he is not satisfied with what he has achieved. The play reflects his deep introspection. I really respect his courage, ambition and talent," says Wan.

Leveraging the three writers' network and resources in the TV and movie industry, the drama company got underway late last year, with a 2 million yuan investment by Vanke Film & Television Co Ltd.

Zou plans to have a play each by the three of them every year, and at the same time, welcomes other young playwrights to join in.

"The Playground" will run at the Capital Theater from today till March 15.

(China Daily February 27, 2009)