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Dateline: 5th April, 2005
The Traverse Brings China to Scotland In 2001, in response to concerns from international playwrights about the dramatic quality of their work in translation, Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre launched its Playwrights in Partnership scheme. The theatre would seek out contemporary international plays it wanted to stage and then match the playwright with a Scottish writer who could recreate the play's life-breath in a different language. Stephen Greenhorn was paired with Belgium playwright Anne Sierens, Linda McLean with Finnish writer Laura Ruohonen, David Harrower with Jon Fosse from Norway and Isobel Wright with Francois Archambault from Quebec. In that same year, the Traverse commissioned a research project into new writing for theare in China. The aim was to find a play that would tell us about the realities of urban life in contemporary mainland China, and that play was found in Beijing, written by acclaimed author Wang Xiaoli. Translated from the Chinese by Cristina Bevir and presented in a version by Edinburgh-based playwright, Ronan O'Donnell (Chic Nerds, Brazil), In the Bag is the latest Playwrights in Partnership project. Modern day Beijing: In a 31 day month, a young office executive finds himself rostered to work 39 days. His wife has a spending habit she can manage and a pregnancy she can't. His older brother, a novelist whose book is never quite finished, is trying to leave his girlfriend but never quite gets as far as the door. Although she can't leave him, she's already engaged to someone else. Someone rich. In its original context, 'In the Bag' means both 'safe and secure' and 'trapped and contained'. Hard-edged but tender, Wang Xiaoli's play explores a culture torn between its history and its contemporary reality. Featuring an impressive cast of British Chinese/East Asian actors and a hip hop soundtrack by Edinburgh's own DJRed6 and the band LiveSciences, In the Bag is directed by Lorne Campbell (The Nest). To tie in with this landmark production, the Traverse will be holding a conference for theatre practitioners interested in working with text-based work from (or in) China. Taking place on Thusday 5th & Friday 6th May, the conference will include contributions from Chinese practioners Wang Xiaoli (playwright) and Shen Lin (dramaturg and playwright).
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