by Ruth Wolff
Directed by Alexander Hausvater
Music: Nicu Alifantis
Set designer: Alin Gavrilă
Coreography: Galea Bobeicu
Light designer: Lucian Moga
Video designer: Șerban Fleancu
Ada Navrot – Dowager Empress
Tache Florescu – Actor
Alex Iezdimir – Emperor
Sebastian Bălășoiu – Teacher
Iulia Verdeș – Empress
Oana Marcu – Concubine
Liviu Cheloiu – General
Emanuel Bighe – Eunuch
Delia Lazăr – Museum Guide
Cristina Dumitra – Court Lady
Antonia Ionescu – Court Lady
Iulia Dinu – Court Lady
Florin Georgescu – Courtier
Andrei Mărcuță – Courtier
Premiere: February 11, 2023, Main Hall
Duration: 1h 50min. (no intervals)
The premiere of EMPRESS OF CHINA took place at the Pan Asian Repertory Theater in New York. The show is produced by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc. NYC (www.broadwayplaypub.com)
Empress of China is a show where the story is, in fact, within the story.
In a museum it happens that the “exhibits” come to life, interpreting, as in a mirror, a fragment of the bloody and corrupt history of China. Nothing less bloody and less corrupt, however, than other countries of the same era (end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century) or of the one we live in. The text of the play covers only two years (1888–1900) of the turbulent reign of Empress Tzu-his, but they are the years of great temptations, of great changes caused by emancipated ideas coming from Europe. One glimpses the temptation of progress through trade and the modernization of a huge country, still tributary to old traditions.
Empress of China is a dense show about power, corruption, betrayal, murder, but also about femininity, love and patriotism that is difficult to understand in the 21st century.
It is a show about an exceptional woman, intelligent, strong and seductive, who hardly understands that she is on the verge of great pretenses that she can no longer contain.
Those who manage to penetrate the story behind the story will understand that nothing we experience today is new under the sun.
Assistant director: Maria Nicola
Stage manager: Alexandru Sandu
Sound: Cătălin Buzea
Lights: Adrian Dragomir