AFTER the success of last year’s production of The Autumn of Han, Red Dragonfly Productions return with another exciting theatrical adaptation of a Chinese classic, DiaoChan: The Rise of the Courtesan in time for Chinese New Year.

The play will be performed on Tuesday, 9 February, at UWTSD Lampeter campus, and is hosted by the Confucius Institute.

Often called the Chinese Macbeth, it is an epic story of lust, jealousy and revenge, taken from the ancient Chinese classic The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The Empire is in turmoil and the tyrant DongZhuo, with the great warrior LuBu at his side, is systematically putting to the sword all those who oppose him.

The minister WangYun fears for the lives of his family, but when both DongZhuo and LuBu show a lustful interest in DiaoChan, a singing girl of WangYun’s household, she comes up with a plan that could solve both their problems – a plan that would see DongZhuo fall and see her rise to the ranks of the nobility.

DiaoChan: The Rise of the Courtesan was adapted for the stage by Ross Ericson, who was behind the successful adaptation of The Autumn of Han and whose five-star solo play, The Unknown Soldier, won critical acclaim at Edinburgh Fringe 2015.

“Europeans can often find classical Chinese drama a little impenetrable,” said Ericson, “so my job is to put the story into a structure and language that would be familiar to European audiences, whilst retaining the authenticity and spirit of the original text.”