The cutting-edge play Seven is showcased this week at the 2025 Aranya Theater Festival, bringing together theater, contemporary art, and immersive experience in a bold reimagining of spiritual cinema.
Directed by emerging avant-garde talent Nie Jingzhu, Seven draws inspiration from Khyentse Norbu's philosophical film Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache. Using the perceptual language of a new generation, Nie transforms the film's metaphoric and poetic elements into what she describes as a "theatrical awakening laboratory". The play guides the audience through a journey that begins with an outward search for answers and shifts gradually toward introspection and inner reconciliation.
One of the festival's most anticipated interdisciplinary collaborations, Seven is presented in conjunction with renowned Chinese artist Song Dong, whose installation A Moment forms an integral part of the production. Together, the theater and installation blur the boundaries between dream and reality, inviting the audience into a space of reflection and multiplicity. A six-sided mirrored structure forms the core of the stage design, conjuring a multidimensional world filled with shifting identities.
"This piece has a dreamlike quality," said Song Dong. "Inside the play, I feel life and death, truth and illusion — it's a deeply moving experience."
Nie, known for her experimental approach to stagecraft, has previously exhibited work at the Venice Architecture Biennale and the Florence Biennale. She also served as the creative director of China's first Metaverse Theater Festival and is the curator of the Showcase unit at the Aranya Theater Festival.
With Seven, Nie continues her exploration of theater as a site of possibility and imagination. "I want the theater to be a place where the future can be seen," she said. "A place where dreams can happen."
