Co-produced by the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Fujian Liyuan Opera Inheritance Centre, Red Wedding Bed is based on the Liyuan classic Chen San and Wuniang. Combining traditional performance with modern dramaturgy, it brings new vitality to Liyuan opera, which is nearly nine centuries old and often referred to as a living fossil of Song-Yuan southern theater. Centered on the famed scene Great Melancholy from the ancient script, the production follows Wuniang’s longing on the red wedding bed and builds a play-within-a-play across a dual timeframe in which dream, memory, and reality are interwoven. The seven role types of the traditional qiziban ensemble move freely between both theatrical worlds, and in the interplay of the illusory and the real, the work reveals a millennium of Liyuan opera heritage together with its contemporary expression.
