DO DI ZHU (FIGHT THE LANDLORD)
Adelaide Oz Asia Festival September 2013 | Brisbane Festival September 2013 | Sydney Carriageworks Theatre October 2013
Huashan 1914 Creative Park May 2012 | Brown’s Mart Theatre August 2012 | Arts Centre Melbourne August - September 2012
Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre October 2010 | World Expo China, Ireland Pavillion October 2010
Watching from the front row at 8 Space, a new theater in the southwestern city of Chengdu, Lei Bing hooted with laughter as three actresses in panda costumes slapped playing cards on a table and, in wisecracking dialogue, laid bare their struggle for love, dignity and affordable housing in the play Fight the Landlord.
The New York Times
By Sun Yue
Three girls have nothing to do on a boring afternoon, so they decide to play this card game. Their relationships are not certain. In one game they are “comrades”, but they suddenly become enemies. Their relationship within the play also shifts, at times they are: a love triangle; a family of three; a psychiatrist treating an unhappy couple; internet friends who have never met; a real-estate agent and house hunters.
They chat while playing the game. Their topics reflect the changes in contemporary China: celebrity internet gossip; rising property prices; increasing divorce rates; whether they should live off their parents or look after them; whether they should have babies; love affairs; homosexuality; job hunting; pay rises; luxury goods; 3D films; literature; art; films and music…
“The dialogue is wryly funny and fast-paced. There are also plenty of send-ups of hackneyed government directives to the public (to which the audience responds with old-fashioned shouts of appreciation – “Hao!” – and bursts of applause).”
Week In China Online News
“In some way, Fight the Landlord is the best and most recent recent symbol of Absurdism in China. Comparing with some murmuring and so-called experimental pieces in modern China, Fight the Landlord used interesting costumes to help audience to lighten the issue of serious problems, such as the meaning of working. And the stage design is quite interesting but delicate, it shows a fairy-tale-like Beijing city and creates a special angle for the audience to join the show and not only watch the show. It can make the audience feel deep sadness and crazy laughter at the same time. I think Beckett would like the Panda-edition of Absurdism.”
By Shai’lene Liufrom “Cando360”
Directed by Gavin Quinn
Designed by Aedín Cosgrove & Gao Yiguang
Produced by Zhaohui Wang
Production team: Liu Yuwen, Gao Yiguang and Liu Shijia
Cast: Bai Shuo, Sun Yue and Wang Jinglei
