The 2019 Beijing Fringe Festival will kick off on September 13 with Russian Baltic House Festival Theater's classic "Anna Karenina" as the opening drama, Xinhua has reported.

Compared with the previous editions, this year's festival is longer in duration, running from September to November, and has more diversified activities in store, including theater performances, creation workshops, script recitals and 48-hour playlet competitions.

Altogether 21 plays from China, Russia, France, Lithuania, Belgium and Brazil will be presented during the event.

The opening play "Anna Karenina," based on Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece of the same name, is under the direction of Russian master Alexander Galibin. Set in the second half of the 19th Century, it tells the tragedy of how the heroine Anna Karenina pursues love but fails in front of social norms and other restrictions.

"Under Ice," helmed by Arturas Areima from Lithuania, is more focused on working people's dilemma nowadays. By describing how "Mr. Nobody" devoted all his energy into the tiring work and gradually lost his identity aside from a worker, it criticizes the consumerism and people's material desires.

Based on the Chernobyl disaster, one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history, "The Forgotten Land" represents the disaster by putting performers and puppets together. Although the theme is fearful, the artistic presentation of the drama makes the scenes soothing and poetic.

Starting in 2008, the Beijing Fringe Festival is being held in its 12th edition this year. The annual event aims to find and foster young theater artists and create dramas for the young.