Empress of China

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

CAST:

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

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