Sunrise (Ri Chu), The Thunderstorm (Lei Yu) and The Family (Jia) are the most famous works of the late playwright Cao Yu (1910-1996), but Cao himself once said The Peking Man (Beijing Ren) is the one he was most satisfied with.

However, for various reasons, the original version in 1957 and another in 1987 failed at the box office. It has been rarely performed since.

Now the Beijing Quju Company has chosen to adapt it into a Quju Opera, which will run at the Capital Theater from May 15 to 25.

Quju Opera Peking Man will be staged in Beijing this month. (file photo: China Daily)

Written by Cao Yu in 1941, the four-act play dramatizes the conflicts, woes and foul play within a declining feudal family in the 1930s. In this family, the patriarch Zeng Hao spends his days recalling past years of luxury; his eldest son Zeng Wenqing is a sponge who lives off on his father; his son-in-law is a playboy who engages only in empty talk; and his daughter-in-law is a relentless woman who manages the household. Su Fang, Zeng's niece, is the only one that holds some promise. She finally leaves the family for freedom and a new life.

"It's hard to present the play, since the plot is not that striking," says director Lu Hao.

"In the play, Cao Yu portrays a group of 'living dead people' who are difficult for today's audience to relate to. They are alive but have lost their soul and thought.

"I call it a ghost sonata, a very powerful drama, and I try to display the strong conflicts in the character's inner world which is hidden in the quiet and smooth plot."

Derived from ballad singing, Quju Opera developed into a local opera genre in the early 1950s by an older generation of performers.

The late renowned playwright Lao She (1899-1966) created the play. The Willow Well for the opera and named it Quju. The Beijing Quju Company was founded in 1959.

But like other local operas in China, the Quju fails to attract large audiences and even performers.

The Beijing Quju Company has tried hard to reserve the genre. In 1999, supported by Beijing Culture Bureau, the Beijing Quju Company and the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts jointly admitted a class of students to learn Quju Opera. They joined the company after graduating in 2003.

The Peking Man will feature these young actors and actresses including Wang Yu as Su Fang, Li Xianggui as Zeng Wenqing and Sun Ning as Zeng Hao.

(China Daily April 29, 2008)