About The Red and The Black

Julien Sorel, a handsome and intelligent young man.

Julien seeing no road to advancement, he is sensitive, helpless and ambitious, he uses seduction as a tool for advancement.

Viewing himself as an unsentimental opportunist, he sets out to win the affections of Mme De Rênal, a mayoress. Then he goes to Paris, he seduces the aristocratic Mathilde. Mathilde gives herself to Julien.

Pride and inferiority, ambition and seduction, rise and fall. The rise of Julien in a tangle of two women. The unruled soul is tortured by the inept, crazy, hypocritical love.

The love of heart and the love of head, red and black, two colors uncover the mystery, lead the way to the abyss.

Credits

Adapted from the novel by Stendhal

Director: Meng Jinghui

Dramaturgy: Sebastian Kaiser (GER)

Cast:

Mei Ting, Zhang Yicheng, Luo Huan, Li Zhihao, Yang Zuofu, Lv Jing, Liu Shuang, Guo Bingkun, Zhang Yaqian, Zhang Gongchang, Chen Yuxin

Stage Design: Zhang Wu

Lighting Design: Wang Qi

Costume Design: Yu Lei

Sound Supervisor: Hua Shan

Composer: Hua Shan, Wang Chuang

Multimedia Design: Chenxurenren

Sound Engineer: Zhang Xinnan

About Stendhal

Stendhal(1783-1842), one of the most original and complex French writers of the first half of the 19th century,

He is a nobody during his lifetime, started writing until his thirties. After his death, his reputation was largely based on his novels, precisely because of The Red and The Black, he is recognized as a great French master as Balzac.

Stendhal’s writing combine lyrical fervor with a rationalist’s passion for analysis. His personality were marked by a striking independence of mind, an anti authoritarian with a nostalgia for the pre-Revolutionary world. The young and charming heroes in his novels attracted and influenced the people around, they believed in rational hedonism and bold heroism. Stendhal is chiefly known for his works of fiction. His finest novels are Le Rouge et Le Noir(1830; The Red and the Black) and La Chartreuse de Parme(1839; The Charterhouse of Parma).

About Meng Jinghui

Director Meng Jinghui revolutionized contemporary theatre in China by sending a torrent of diverse new voices onto the stage. He has created over 50 works for the stage since the 1990s. His notable stage productions include: Rhinoceros in Love, Opinions About Life from Two Dogs, Teahouse, To Live, Four Dreams of Linchuan, Amber, I Love XXX, Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Mermaid in the Backwater, The Murder of Hanging Garden, A Letter from A Woman Unknown, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, He Had Two Pistols with Black and White Eyes, The Bedbug, The Good Person of Sichuan, Guns Lies and Roses, etc.

Meng's works have been performed at numerous international festivals and toured around the world. In recent years, Meng has founded and served as the artistic director of several important theatre festivals in China. His publications include Avant-Garde Drama and New Avant-Garde Archive.

About Meng Jinghui Theatre Studio

Meng Jinghui Theatre Studio was established in 1997. Its creative foundations have always been the principle of diversity and the spirit of the avant-garde. On this basis, the Meng Theatre Studio has presented more than 40 contemporary theatre works, which have been at the forefront of the Chinese theatrical art. Iconic among them, Rhinoceros in Love is known as "the bible of contemporary love," and has been played more than 2,500 times.

At the same time, Meng Theatre Studio has organized hundreds of lectures, exhibitions, concerts, workshops and more, to support young artists. The Meng Theatre Studio is not only focused on creating theatre works, but also aims to bring the Chinese theatre art to a new level for a new age.