Inside. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Accordion-style silver tubes, reminiscent of metallic appendages from a robot, appear throughout Inside, whether worn on arms and legs curved around each other in a pas de deux, or peered through in periscope fashion. Gong leaves it up to the audience to decipher the symbolism (the "heavy weight of indifference" referenced in the playbook?) yet they add a unique element to the work.

Inside also benefits from an eclectic soundtrack that drives the shifting moods onstage. In one scene, Louis Armstrong's carefree cover of the classic French song La Vie en Rose - which means "life seen through rosy hues" - plays as pink lighting illuminates a performer watching others lounge on the ground. In another, a soft piano recording strikes a more tender chord as a couple moves together in a slow, fluid harmony during a duet.

Ultimately, Inside engages the audience from start to finish with its emotional core, dramatizing that universal fear of loneliness and the redemptive power of love through exceptional performances, including by Gong herself.