About Heart

Heart is adapted from Russian writer Bulgakov's novella, Heart of a Dog.

Changing from the dog's life to human life, Garrikov's life did not get better as expected. Before accepting the experiment, Garrikov had to define himself as a "purebred dog wandering on the streets of Moscow," and he disdained the voice of doubt. But when Garrikov was humanized, there were problems in his identity. The professor and his assistant wanted to replace Garrikov with a human heart to better help him become a man. When he ultimately left, he was happy. He chose to continue his life as a stray dog. This was the choice he made for himself.

About Planet Twenty Three

Pang Ding is an 11-year-old kid; in his eyes, anything can fly, but his mother tells him he should pay more attention to his studies. Still, every night Pang Ding secretly writes a story about the flying dragon wars of Planet 23. One night, Pang Ding goes to a dreamland where the characters he created come alive. After a series of adventures, Pang Ding wakes from his dream and finds he has become an adult overnight. Busy with work and making a living, he has love, marriage and children, but can no longer remember his dream of that night…

Credits

Heart

Collectively Adapted from Bulgakov's novella Heart of a Dog—by Liu Xiaoye, Zhao Xiaosu, Liu Xiaoyi, Ding Yiteng, Wu Bi

Director: Liu Xiaoye

Cast:

Liu Xiaoye as Sharikov

Ding Yiteng as The Professor

Zhao Xiaosu as The Ph.D

Liu Xiaoyi as The Cat, The Beater

Wu Bi as The Bard, The Chief

Executive Team: YOMIX

Planet Twenty Three

Playwrights: Liu Xiaoyi, Liu Tianqi

Director: Liu Xiaoyi

Cast:

Ding Yiteng as Pangding

Liu Tianqi as Mom, Moth

Zhao Xiaosu as The Doctor, The Toliet Ball

Wu Bi as The Great Magician

Liu Xiaoye as The Rag Elf

Liu Xiaoyi as The Sunglasses Man

Liu Xiaoyi, Liu Xiaoye, Liu Tianqi, Zhao Xiaosu as Dragon

Liu Xiaoyi, Liu Xiaoye, Wu Bi, Zhao Xiaosu, Liu Tianqi as The Fatebringer

Executive Team: YOMIX

About the directors

Heart

Liu Xiaoye is an outstanding stage actor, and a professor in the Musical Department of the Beijing Dance Academy. He has worked in the theatre for 20 years and has appeared in more than 6000 performances. His notable works include Opinions on the Life of Two Dogs, Hitler's Stomach and Eggs.

Planet Twenty Three

Liu Xiaoyi is a director, actor and choreographer in mainland China. He is also the founder of Touch Laboratory, and a puppet master. He is the Chinese puppet director of the world's epic stage play War Horse. His best-known works include War Horse, Wu Kong, and Little Soldier Zhang Ga.

About Theatre for Living

Theatre for Living is a TV reality show produced by iQiyi, bringing young theatre artists to live and work together to create new theatre pieces. Since its premiere on the internet in early 2021, the 10 episodes of the first season have created a sensation and captivated audiences, who were given insight into the trials and tribulations of creating theatre pieces.

Theatre for Living brought together eight "unknown" artists: Liu Xiaoye, Wu Bi, Zhao Xiaosu, Liu Xiaoyi, Ding Yiteng, Liu Tianqi, Xiu Rui and Wu Haochen to live and work in Wuzhen. Unlike other reality shows that tended towards the sensational, Theatre for Living was more like a social experiment, showing the lives and ecology of theatre artists today. This was a breakthrough for reality shows.

Theatre for Living was shot entirely on location at Wuzhen. Every week there would be a new production presented at one of the different venues in Wuzhen. The audience was led through the creative process all the way to seeing the final production. Five plays chosen for this year's festival originated in the program.