Royal Ballet coming to Shanghai

NY musical becomes completely Chinese

Zhou presents his observations of Chinese society but avoids moral judgments.

Even small towns are building ring roads with the country's breakneck urbanization. Most people aspire to get closer to the central ring, where power and resources are concentrated.

"But you may not be happy when you are in the central ring. Sometimes you need to jump outside to know what it is you truly want," the playwright says.

The Ring Road was partly inspired by Austrian dramatist Arthur Schitzler's (1862-1931) play Reigen (1897). The German original was about sex breaking through the boundaries of social status. Zhou borrowed the structure of a full circle of interpersonal relations.

In his play, sex is not the sole driver that keeps the circle going. Rather, everybody has his or her own motivation, Zhou says. The ring road, and the core of power it signifies, is the central theme.

The Ring Road has started a national tour from Hangzhou in June. Shanghai is the third city after Yunnan province's capital Kunming. It will go to Guangdong province's Guangzhou (July 19-20) and Shenzhen (Aug 1-2), Jiangsu's Nanjing (Aug 8-9), Liaoning's Shenyang (Aug 16-17), Shaanxi's Xi'an (Aug 24-26) and Sichuan's Chengdu (Aug 28-31).

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

IF YOU GO

The Ring Road

7:30 pm, July 11-12.

Lyceum Theater Shanghai, 57 South Maoming Lu (Road), Huangpu district, Shanghai.

021-6217-2426.

100-280 yuan ($16-45).