Double Bill Peony Pavilion

A love story that moves through dreams and across boundaries. A theatrical event that bridges future and past, English and Chinese. “Two Takes: The Peony Pavilion” comes to New York City this August juxtaposing a contemporary reimagining (“Bloom”) and a traditional performance (“Dream”) of a revered Chinese classic. 

“Two Takes: The Peony Pavilion” will feature two versions of the popular scene  “The Garden Visit and Dream” from The Peony Pavilion, a masterpiece of Chinese kunqu theatre written by Tang Xianzu in 1598. In the modern adaptation “Bloom” (written by Liqing Xu and directed by Tianding He), a young Asian queer woman, over the course of an evening, encounters a Lover who transforms into the  various queer people in her life she never had the courage to pursue, while simultaneously, her mother has her own awakening. In the classical kunqu version “Dream” (presented by the Kunqu Society), Du Liniang, a young maiden of sixteen, visits the deserted back garden of her residence with her maid on a spring day. The visit to the vibrancy of life in springtime lulls her into a daydream in which a young man passionately courts her by the peony pavilion in the garden.