Society

Plague to help sick kids

By Chen Qide (China Daily Shanghai Bureau)
Updated: 2011-04-19 17:54

SHANGHAI – The Simple Theatre Group will play the modern drama Plague at the city's Dream Factory within Total Rich Fun on April 22 by joining the China Lions for a charitable performance to collect funds for the treatment of sick kids.

"We will take out part of the box office value as funds for medical fees for some sick kids in the Shanghai Xinhua Hospital," said Li Yanni, an official from China Lions, a subsidiary of Lions Clubs International, an international charitable organization.

Li said kids will be chosen from the patients who suffer from brain tumors, but can't afford the high medical fees.

Simple Theatre Group, set up in 2009, consists of theatre professionals, folk dramatists and students to make artistic creation in a simple way.

"The performance, a stage version of the novel by Albert Camus, which will last till May 1, aims to arouse the sense of people's social responsibility," said Ye Junhua, director of the drama.

The drama tells a story about the plague's takeover of Oran, the port city in northern Algeria. The massive plague epidemic forced the city's gates locked, imprisoning its citizens and sealing it off from the outside world.

In the brutally hot summer months, the worst period of the disease, the plague killed so many people that there was no space left to bury them. The town crematorium was burning bodies at top-capacity and everyone in the city suffered terrible feelings of pain and exile.

The story tells of humanity's struggle against the plague, describing the difficulties people undertook from awareness to victory.

"We want to give people strength and confidence through the performance," said Li Sensen, adapter of the drama.