Changing stages

Beijing People's Art Theater puts on a new localized adaptation of a US playwright's classic drama, Chen Nan reports.

Desire Under the Elms, a three-part tragedy written by US playwright Eugene O'Neill, has been adapted into a Chinese play with the same title and staged by Beijing People's Art Theater to celebrate the launch of its new venue.

The play debuted in late September and will run until Sunday. It features two groups of performers.

The new venue is located next to Capital Theater, which was established in 1954 as the home of Beijing People's Art Theater company. It is one of the two venues of the Beijing International Theater Center, a 23,000-square-meter project launched by Beijing People's Art Theater.

According to Ren Ming, president of Beijing People's Art Theater, one of the reasons for adapting Desire Under the Elms is to pay tribute to Cao Yu (1910-96), the Chinese playwright who was the first president of Beijing People's Art Theater.