Created and led by young artist Yuan Wenkang, An Everlasting Life is adapted from the novella of the same title by Ai Wei, a recipient of the 8th Lu Xun Literature Prize. Tracing several decades in the fortunes of a Yue Opera family, the play centers on the emotional bonds between a famed Yue Opera performer and her three children across half a lifetime, exploring regret and forgiveness amid artistic aspirations, fractures in the family, and life’s final chapter. The production combines realist theater with the cultural resonance of Yue Opera. Its minimalist, evocative stage space, fluid structure of time and space, and finely restrained performance language build connections between literary texture, operatic aesthetics, and the contemporary stage, presenting the characters’ inner journey as they face the past, reality and themselves.
