"You are my warm mittens, my cool beer; you are a shirt with the smell of sunshine, and also my dream…you are pure, innocent…my lover, my lover," says a tall, slim young man in a white shirt.

With a mop of curly hair, the man talks about his deep affection toward a woman.

Even in the dim light of the stage, people feel the sorrow and desolation in his voice.

And a little bit of madness.

This monologue opened the 2017 version of the classic drama, Rhinoceros in Love, at the Beijing Comedy Theater on Dec 20.

The play, first showed in 1999, was directed by Meng Jinghui. Meng has won acclaim for his various avant-garde drama works.

A series of well-known actors and actresses have played parts in the drama, including Guo Tao, Hao Lei and Duan Yihong.

The drama is about the love between a man, Ma Lu, and a woman, Ming Ming. The story is not anything new; the plot is similar to other romance productions, centering on "you love me, I love him. And he he loves another woman."

Yet the play strongly highlighted the emotional struggles of the characters. Deep feelings were dug out and presented to audience both through poetic passages and a few nasty lines.