Chinese avant-garde director Meng Jinghui brought Lao She's play "Teahouse" for its debut at the Festival In d'Avignon in France on Tuesday night.

It is the first Chinese play to be invited to the core "In" festival of the 73-year-old contemporary performing arts event.

"Teahouse" was written by Chinese literary master Shu Qingchun, better known for his pen name Lao She, in 1957. The play centers around a Beijing teahouse where boss Wang Lifa and visitors from all walks of life are portrayed struggling amid social turmoil during the first half of the 20th century.

Meng's version tries to highlight the content of a traditional Chinese drama through contemporary means: Cold blue light is cast against a steel backdrop. Actors wearing white and black modern apparel sit high or low in every direction on stage, some of them making dashes while shouting lines as "the wheel of time" spins, scattering white paper scraps.

When the play draws to an end, the more than 800 people in the audience fervently applauded the unconventional Chinese play.

Olivier Py, director of the Festival d'Avignon, was moved to tears and praised it as one of the best plays he has ever seen. Defining it "poetic, profound, crazy, incisive, critical, cold and sympathetic," he said, "the play gives me the desire and reason to continue making the play in the next decade."

"Teahouse" was staged at the Opera Confluence, the biggest theater in Avignon, to make up for what Paul Rondin, the festival's executive director, said "73 years of late" for Chinese plays. The play is expected to be attended by more than 10,000 spectators for its 10 performances in total.

The theme of this year's festival is "Odyssey," which promises adventure and hope, and advocates reinterpretations of a classic play in different expressive ways. Meng's "Teahouse" echoes it.

The story of "Teahouse" happened in the past, which can arouse different feelings in today's artists, said Meng at the festival's press conference on Monday. "We remake the play based on rethinking the past times… Every second, life starts and continues, just like new leaves growing from trees."

This year marks the 120th anniversary of Lao She's birth. The remake of "Teahouse" is a salute to the late "artist of the people."

"'Teahouse' is a piece of treasure. It's like wine, the older, the tastier," said Meng at the festival's press conference on Monday. "As it ferments over time, it still has the power, the compassion for humanity and the worrying about the future, which has a direct connection with the present."

"It is like a mirror, reflecting the distant history and the current life. Every person can find his or her own connection with 'Teahouse,'" he added.

Festival d'Avignon was founded by French drama director Jean Vilar in 1947 and has been held annually in summer since then. It is divided into "In" and "Off" portions.

The "In" festival invites top theater companies and directors from around the world to perform, with this year securing 43 dramas; while the "Off" festival is attracting hundreds to a thousand dramas to join in.

China first attended the festival in 2011 and has presented more than 20 contemporary theatrical works as of 2018.

Video courtesy of Meng Jinghui Theater Company

Cover image designer: Zhang Xuecheng