Faust among equals

In 2019, the established Lithuanian theater director Rimas Tuminas worked with Chinese artists on his adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's epic, Faust. The Chinese play was premiered in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Dec 6, 2019, and was warmly received and it later toured China.

However, with the arrival of COVID-19, in early 2020, the tour was brought to an abrupt halt.

"We tried to bring the production back to the theater but the plan was canceled over and over again, which was very disappointing," says producer Lei Ting, adding that, during the past three years, the production's composer Faustas Latenas, and one of the actors, Sun Bo, had died.

In January, when live theater returned, the producer decided to reinstate the play and discussed her ideas with the director. However, Tuminas was battling a second bout of cancer and he couldn't travel to Beijing.

"Soon, we decided to go to Tel Aviv, Isreal, where the director worked and received medical treatment," says Lei. "It was a crazy idea but we made it." In July, the creative team, about 18 people, traveled from Beijing to Tel Aviv, where they worked for about one month.

On Dec 6, Lei appeared at the New Tsinghua Xuetang, an auditorium located in Tsinghua University, to announce the new tour of Faust.