Audiences in South Australia will take a glimpse of Chinese villagers this weekend, when a play by famous playwright and director Stan Lai takes the stage at the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide. 

The Village, written and directed by Lai, traces the lives of several different families that traveled to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland in the 1940s. The play was hailed by the Beijing News as "the pinnacle of our era of theater." 

"With this play I wish to give the audiences in Australia a better understanding of what the Chinese playwrights are doing, and what the original contemporary plays are like," Lai said.

The play, having been staged for over 200 times since its production in 2008, will be shown at the Festival Theater on Friday and Saturday. This is the second time that Lai's play comes to OzAsia Festival.

Lai noted that Chinese plays, especially the original contemporary plays, should be encouraged to go out. "Sometimes even when we put our plays on overseas, it was just one or two performances, not enough for them to really go into the lives of foreigners."

In 2015, he took the Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land to the United States, where they had more than 80 performances. "It was a successful experience," he said. Meanwhile, Lai is translating his works into foreign languages. The English version of Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land was brought to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. 

The OzAsia Festival, Australia's leading contemporary arts festival engaging with Asia, features 60 events with 850 artists from more than 20 countries.

(With input from Xinhua News Agency)