Theater

English language theater in Beijing

heart_beijing.jpg
Click to enlarge
While Beijing Playhouse has just concluded auditions for a September performance of Broadway musical Guys and Dolls, a separate troupe of actors is in the middle of a run of performances of an originally written play about life in Beijing. This is their blurb:

I Heart Beijing is a rowdy sendup of life in the capital: Naughty nymphette Ting Ting is a Beijinger by birth but a cosmopolitan girl at heart, she and her headstrong American roommate Sylvia have just moved into an apartment and find themselves hosts to the antics of their friends; John a womanizing laowai who names all his girlfriends Apple, and Lucy a schizophrenic ABC who has an orgasm at the merest of mention of Stephen Colbert's name. And life in Beijing seems as it should.

That is, until Ting Ting's arrogant and protective older brother Liu Ming joins the group and fireworks fly. But not the romantic fireworks that sparkle happily in a Hollywood movie, rather those that explode dangerously nearby as you stumble home after dumplings and beer.

There are perfomances on the 15th, 16th and 17th at 7.30 pm at BCIS. Email Elyse at tickets@iheartbeijing.com to reserve tickets. You can also visit the I Heart Beijing website, or read an SCMP article republished on the I♥北京 blog.

There are currently 13 Comments for English language theater in Beijing.

Comments on English language theater in Beijing

Those girls are hawt.

Laughably bad.

Sounds as good as The Power. Is Nina Liu in it?

Why not post a link to the review by Chris Dalby, published by the China Daily? It's highly accurate:
link

Critics are bottom feeders. Write your own play! I liked it and I haven't seen any other play that addresses the issues of Beijing expatriates and Chinese people who know them. Good on you Elyse.

The play is written in broad strokes (like half mile wide broad strokes) but is a good first attempt at this kind of thing and deserves credit for that, although I can understand why many would dismiss it as one-dimensional. It's not going to make much of an impact in anybody's life, but the doesn't claim it will. By the way, that review posted above is pants: "attempts an Orson Welles tour de force"? It does? I missed that.

HEART HEART

"Critics are bottom feeders. Write your own play! I liked it and I haven't seen any other play that addresses the issues of Beijing expatriates and Chinese people who know them. Good on you Elyse. "

So because no one ever did this subject before that makes it good?

Chinese people who know expatriates? Shouldn't a Chinese person write the play then?
YAWN has to be right.

Sounds like the title has nothing to do with anything. Generic too.

Any play I would ever write wouldn't be propaganda enough to get into that theatre. Its all about hating the male laowai it seems.

I hope her next one is: "Maggies! The Musical."

Great, from what the above article say I can see this play is going to be another one of "those". We got one ABC "who has an orgasm at the merest of mention of Stephen Colbert's name", one "naughty nymphette" Chinese-Chinese, one "womanizing laowai", one strict Chinese guy and one headstong American girl. So much sexual tension, and I am willing to bet none of them involve elder brother and the European American girl. I read on the comments that the play wasn't written by a Chinese national? What a surprise. Hey, I may be wrong and the play might actually be good; however the synopsis just leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe I am missing the deeper meaning here. On a personal note, Colbert is a funny guy. :)

All you haters: you write nasty things and you haven't even seen the play!

Puhlease yo. I know you aint talking about me dawg, I already said da play may be good. I only hit up on the syno yo. The syno mad weak yo. I didnt told you I saw the show. I done saying it man. You need to read man. Now holla back at yo boi. Out. :)

That was +sum+ weak sauce G.T.L.


Attempts an Orson Welles tour de force meant that Elyse Ribbons wrote, directed and starred in her own play, something Welles was famous for.

Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ New Years Past: Other Spring Festivals by Geremie R. Barmé (2007.02): Sang Ye interviews two people about their experiences during Great Leap Forward-era Spring Festivals. Translated and annotated by Geremie R. Barmé.
+ Trend-spotting in online fiction (2007.06): An interview with Daniel Dan Fei (丹飞), publisher of Notes on Graverobbing (盗墓笔记), Rear Palace (后宫), and Those Ming Dynasty Things (明朝那些事).
+ China's 50 Most Beautiful People (2005.03): The Beijing News borrows a picture of Maggie Cheung from Cosmo for the cover of today's Entertainment insert, "50 Most Beautiful People in China". Ms. Cheung takes the top spot, with Takeshi Kaneshiro, Little S, Zhang Ziyi, and Liu Ye rounding out the top five in this exercise that is a conscious imitation of People magazine's yearly rundown.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30