Issues raised by theater group see audience get in on the act

"But the protagonist chooses not to give up and asks the clown for help. My interpretation is that the clown could be someone around us, or simply ourselves. Our own decisions might lead us to despair, but we can also find hope on our own."

The play embodies the Galli Method proposed by Johannes Galli, with the "seven cellar kids" theory at its foundation. Galli envisions seven playful figures that represent an individual's personality traits, such as arrogance, irritability and tendency to gossip.

Many of the theater's productions or workshops involve acting out these roles, during which the performers get to pay attention to these sides of their own personalities. They might be factors that lead to undesirable life situations, but by confronting them, the performers learn to embrace these sides of who they are and transform them into newfound strengths in real-life scenarios.

For example, arrogance can be transformed into leadership, irritability can urge someone to put things into action and improve their efficiency, and gossiping allows a person to understand and empathize with other people.

"Johannes Galli leaves the audience with two options in the play — either leave the protagonist alone, or take over the task of detecting those characteristics within ourselves," says Galli Theater's international manager, Michael Wenk.

"He built a bridge between the actors and the audience. For the protagonist alone, there is no hope, but when we join in, her suffering makes sense, and the questions are posed to us."

Wenk came to Beijing in November to attend events marking the 10th anniversary of the theater's China branch. The anniversary events included six lectures given by experts in psychology and drama therapy, three theater workshops, five prevention plays and five sharing sessions by their production crews.