Stage photo of La venue des esprits. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"This year's Beijing Fringe Festival is more diverse and more international," said Meng Jinghui, mastermind behind the event, now in its eighth year.

The festival, which runs until Sept 26 in six theatres and art spaces in Beijing, will include 22 dramas from seven countries, said Meng.

"We have invited troupes from Brazil, Japan and France. In eight years the number of plays during the festival has grown from a dozen to over a hundred. While more foreign plays are joining us, they are also characterized more with the directors' personalities and understandings".

Brazilian play Three Tragic Females, for example, probes relationships between men and women, women and society; Japanese play Three Strange Sisters, tells the story of three gifted girls who step into a world which is bound with all kinds of rules.

As a cooperation partner with Festival d'Avignon, the oldest extant annual arts festival in France, this year's Beijing Fringe Festival is also imprinted with a "French taste".