Reviews

Frankenstein's cast is from Poland, France, and China. The languages, cultures and the dramatic conventions of all countries are very different. Overcoming this difference and influencing these characters with the director's "new stylization" theatrical view, making them a harmonious unification... and preserving the individual identity of each actor... this play in itself is a daunting challenge...

　　– Wu Dong, You Ran

Ding Yiteng, as the director, is reluctant to give up anything. Obviously, he did his best.

　　– Lv Yanni

On the one hand, the pattern of having Chinese directors and international actors collaborating on a play and presenting it on the platform of China's first-class contemporary theatre festival is a breakthrough in itself; on the other hand, for the work itself, the director has practiced his "new stylization" approach on foreign actors, through which he sees hope and problems; and the work is more complete than his previous works, in terms of narrative and thematic expression, and is closer to the “sacrifice” Glotowski proposed that the director wants to achieve.

　　– Wang Run, Among Big and Small Stages

About Frankenstein: Paradise Lost in Darkness

This play applies the new concept with Chinese aesthetic style in contemporary drama performing — “New Codification” and seeks inspiration from the psychoanalysis theory founded by Sigmund Freud in light of The Interpretation of Dreams to creatively reshape the first sci-fi in human history written by British novelist Mary Shelley — Frankenstein.

Wei Duo’s father passed away when she was a child, and after some time her mother married her stepfather. Wei Duo is sexual assaulted by her stepfather, but her mother only advise her to put up with it. With her boyfriend’s support, she regains hope in her life, before being deprived of it again when her boyfriend dies in an accident. Wei Duo is beaten down by this blow,she begins to fantasize that her boyfriend has come back to life, and falls into a bizarre dream.

Appear in the dream a Creature who looks like her boyfriend. The bloodsucking and savage Creature is enlightened by the Master later, replacing blood and flesh with tomatoes. The Creature wants to rescue Wei Duo but she chooses to commit suicide in her dream……

This is a really topsy-turvy dream and those hard-to-speak-of scars ripped open, layer by layer.

Credits　　

Director: Ding Yiteng

Original Fiction: Mary Shelley（UK）

Script Advisor: Lissa Tyler Renaud (USA)

Artistic Guidance: Jiang Tao

Artistic Consultant: Peng Tao

Psychology Consultant: Zhang Ping

Literary Consultant: Liu Miyang

Dramaturges: Ruan Luqiao, Zhu Li

Producer: Hu Yingyue

Co-producer: Wei Jiayi

Stage Design: Tong Sijun

Stage Manager: Zhang Daohan

Style Design: Zhang Ruimeng

Secondary Style Design: Zhang Xiaoyu

Music Director: Liu Huiyuan

Musical Compositions: Wang Tianqi, Liu Huiyuan

Poster Design: Li Xiaoyan

Lighting Design: Kong Wei

Sound Design: Wang Wenyan

Translators: Aegean Liu, Zhu Li

Publicist: Zheng Xindi

Stage Design Assistant: An Linsheng

Cast:

　　Ding Yiteng - Creature

　　Yue Yien - Wei Duo

　　Qie Yi - Stepfather

　　Hu Qianling - Mother

　　Feng Tian - Master/Little Creature

　　Kang Tongge - Spirit/Great-grandmother

　　He Xindi - Spirit/Female Creature

　　Liu Huiyuan - Sitar/Yang Performing

　　Wang Tianqi - Electronic Music Synthesizer

About Ding Yiteng

Ding Yiteng is a PhD student of Directing in The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing.

He is hailed as “the pioneering young theatre director of the new generation in contemporary China” and “the super-popular theatre youth in China today” in the theatre circle.

The international drama magazine in America Scene4 commented him as “the shining artist of his generation”.

Ding’s absurd performing style with explosive appeal has received universal acclamation by the theatre directing master Eugenio Barba in Denmark, the renowned actors Huang Bo and Wen Zhang as well as the dramatist Shi Hang in China. His directing works such as Injustice to Tou O, Frankenstein: The Dream of Ice and Fire, Dream of a Drunk Poet and Macbeth and Fleance all attempt to merge the artistic quintessence of traditions and contemporary times as well as of the Eastern and Western cultures, and to interpret classics with full style echoing with the era, which have formed an unignorable fiery force in China’s theatre realm.