Good things come to those who wait

The international productions being staged include Moliere's Tartuffe by French theater Nono, directed by Serge Noyelle, and a production of Hamlet by Beit Lessin, the second-largest theater in Israel.

Besides his literature, one of Lao She's great achievements was that when he wrote The Willow Well in 1952, a new art form was invented based on Beijing's Quyi art, which was called Quju Opera. The writer himself proposed the name.

During the festival, the Beijing Quju Opera Troupe will stage one of its most popular productions, Snuff Bottles, by composer Dai Yisheng and scriptwriter Zhang Yonghe, which recounts the miserable life of a skilled craftsman who would rather cut off one of his arms than make a snuff bottle bearing the image of a foreign invader.

Since the Beijing Quju Opera Troupe was founded in 1959, nearly 10 of Lao She's works have been adapted into Quju Opera, including Rickshaw Boy, Teahouse and Sishi Tongtang, according to Cui Di, the director of the Beijing Quju Opera Troupe.