Chasing the city of dreams

From Sydney's glittering promise to a reimagined Chinese stage, a striking play charts a couple's pursuit of success, and the compromise it demands, Chen Nan reports.

Atale pulsing with ambition, desire, and the weight of dreams, Emerald City, the classic play published in 1987 by acclaimed Australian playwright David Williamson, has been adapted into a Chinese production for the first time by the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

In this fresh iteration of the play, the streets of Sydney and the lives of its characters are transformed, inviting the Chinese audience to reflect on the universal struggle between ideals and reality, says Feng Yuanzheng, a veteran actor, director and the president of the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

The Chinese adaptation of the play will be staged at the Cao Yu Theater from April 30 to May 23.