For more than two millennia, the romance of Zhou Wenjun and Sima Xiangru have inspired numerous literary and artistic interpretations. Playwright Xu Fen recasts this story featuring only Zhuo as the principal character. Through the depiction of Zhuo’s feelings about life and love, this production arrives at quite an unconventional conclusion. The emphasis on emotions, however, connects both past and present by sentiments that are universal.

Zhuo Wenjun has no set, nor does it use the standard props of one-table-two-chairs, yet the scenery is beautiful because the abstract stage of traditional xiqu opens to even freer imagination. The aesthetic experience is further enhanced by a supporting cast of beautiful women. Musically, Xu employs a new approach to vocal delivery, quoting traditional tune-types (Man Ting Fang, Jiang Tou Gui, Ren Huang Long, Yi Zhi Hua, Shua Hai Er, Qing Nao Ao and Deng Diao) enriched by modern compositional techniques, sometimes even referencing the Sichuan narrative “Yangqin” style.

Since Zhuo and Sima were members of the intellectual class, this production is filled with beauty, elegance and literary flair. However, the genre of Sichuan opera is in no way diluted, retaining its “stunning, spicy and hot” nature.

All in all, although this new work never veers away from its nature as Sichuan opera, it fuses legacy and progress, classic and new trends, literature and drama, elegancy and popularism, beauty and discernment, song and dance perfectly.