From drunken reverie to stagecraft on water

The theme of this year's festival is yong, or emerge, Meng said, and the 28 works are divided into five categories: master surge, classical vortex, avant-garde tsunami, innovation undertow and academic ripple.

The opening play is Three Sisters, directed by Yury Butusov and based on Anton Chekhov's work of the same title. The four-hour play will be performed by St. Petersburg Lensovet Academic Theater.

For Butusov, regarded as one of the foremost directors on the contemporary Russian stage, it will be his first time working in China, where he is familiar to many people thanks to his work The Seagull, a performance of which was recorded by Stage Russia HD at the Satirikon Theater in Moscow and screened in China last year.

At this year's festival the London-born and Paris-based director Peter Brook will present his new production, Why?, written and directed by him and his longtime partner Marie-Helene Estienne.