Play focuses on classic painting and its creator

Huang was born in Changshu in present-day Jiangsu province. The painter, who lost his parents when he was very young, was a government official before he took up art.

He took up painting in his 50s after returning to his hometown following a spell in jail which put paid to his hopes of attaining an official rank. In 1347, Huang moved to the Fuchun Mountains, southwest of Hangzhou, along the bank of the Fuchun River, where he spent the last years of his life. There, he did a number of paintings on the natural landscape, including Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.

As for the play its director Li Bonan, says the design of the stage set follows the liubai tradition of Chinese painting techniques, in which strategic placement of white spaces could suggest anything, like the clouds, river and the sky.

Separately, the music, which is composed by Yu Li, features Chinese gongs and drums. The drama is one of the 18 productions being showcased at the ongoing National New Drama Performance in Beijing.

The event, which kicked off on Nov 28, runs through Dec 29.

Other highlights of the festival include Gu Wenchang by the National Theater of China, which is about the life story of Gu Wenchang, the first official who advocated the fight against desertification by planting trees since the 1950s; and Shibadong by the Hunan Theater Company, which is based on the story of Shibadong village, the home of the Miao ethnic people in the mountains of Central China's Hunan province, striving to get out of poverty.