Journey into a Dream, a performance from the Beijing Fringe Festival at the 2019 Avignon OFF Festival

Journey into a Dream, a contemporary Chinese theater production July 23–27 at the Collège de la Salle (Théâtre du Préau), at 7:50 PM Directed by Zu Jiyan Running time: 1h | For all audiences Text and direction: Zu Jiyan Cast: Sun Xinyu, Kong Lingpeng Lighting design: Wang Xiaoyan Stage management: Sun Huiwen Visual design: Wu Shangze Production: Xie Pengfei, Wu Shan Reservations through the Festival OFF online box office ↓↓↓ https://www.avignonleoff.com/programme/2019/voyage-en-reve-s27082/ Show overview The play tells the story of a male playwright who goes to visit one of his characters, a woman, in a fictional space. This woman is a fashion designer, and the playwright bursts into her world. They quarrel, confront one another, clash, and share the same suffering. But like attracts like, and the two of them sustain the illusion of love. Yet the man decides to return to reality and to destroy this character of whom he is the creator. But after killing the woman, he discovers that he himself is in danger—he was not only the woman’s creator but turns out to be a creature himself. This story is inspired by the mathematical concept of the “Möbius strip,” which explores the relationship between creator and created within fate. The director, Zu Jiyan, explains: “The idea for Journey into a Dream is inspired by the ‘Möbius strip’ and by Escher’s contradictory paintings. By common sense, a sheet of paper has two sides. Yet on the Möbius strip there is an involuntary reversal—the world is made up of only one deformed plane, just like our lives. We think there is a binary opposition between everything, but life is often just a whirlwind of chaos. No one can perceive life as a whole, and there is no absolute true or false in love. There are only feelings of the heart and individual opinions. When we see on stage a man and a woman wandering in the desert of reality and illusion, it may perhaps lead us to consider our lives in a more open way.” The director Zu Jiyan Zu Jiyan is a young screenwriter and director. She holds a master’s degree in Theater and Film from the School of Arts at Peking University. Supported twice by the National Arts Fund, she founded an independent theater studio, the Gap Year Studio, and has produced several shows, such as Journey into a Dream, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Constant Wife, and At 2:30pm on Saturday, which together amount to more than 300 performances nationwide. She has been invited to take part in the International Women Festival, the Beijing Fringe Festival, and other top-tier national theater festivals. She is also a film critic for numerous media outlets, such as the People’s Daily, the Beijing Times, and Lichee News.