China and the West

Aufführung einer Zusammenfügung von San jie mei = Three sisters von Anton Chekhov und Deng dai Geduo = Waiting for Godot von Samuel Beckett im Beijing ren yi shou du ju chang = Capital Theatre des Beijing People's Art Theatre, unter der Regie von Lin Zhaohua.
Except for the removal of some scenes and characters, a complete act oft he original Three sisters serves as the main body for an act of the production and, in that act, a number of fragments from Waiting for Godot are inserted. What the audience saw was in effect an alternation of extracts from the two plays. The idea of having Beckett's characters enter Chekhov's play, and 'vice versa', was to connect the contemporary orld of Godot with the historical world of Three sisters. Apart from the actors' double characters, the set design also provided a spatial frame fort he combination. Since the performing area of Three sisters was primarily upstage and that for Godot downstage, the actors playing in both generally switched characters in accordance with the performing areas they occupied. Such an arrangement of the performing areas for the two plays created a space that required the audience to literally view Three sisters through Godot.