Li Liuyi is a Chinese director and playwright of Beijing People's Art Theatre. His theory “Pure Drama” and his related exploration in the field are known as “Li Liuyi Methodology”, which is widely acclaimed and researched. Japanese modern theater master Tadashi Suzuki calls him “The most influential stage artist of Asia in the new century”.
Li Liuyi has been invited to different international art festivals and commissioned to create new productions. He was once invited by the City of Linz—the European Capital of Culture in 2009 to direct the opera The Land of Smiles in Linz State Theatre. He became the first Chinese director to set foot in the world of mainstream European opera. Li directed and put the “Heroine” trilogy on stage for the opening ceremony of Holland Festival and was received by the Queen of the Netherlands. He cooperated with the National Ballet of China, adapted and directed the ballet The Peony Pavilion. The ballet was one of the opening performances in the Edinburgh International Festival, which marked an important breakthrough for China's performing arts scene, as it meant Chinese performances were now being staged in major European art festivals.
Critics consider Li Liuyi a playwright with lasting literary creativity. His works of drama include: three small theatre works -- Blue Sky After Rain, Mahjong, and Songat Midnight; the “Heroine” Trilogy Mu Guiying, Hua Mulan, Liang Hongyu; See Lu Xun Again, 2003, Time Passed by; The Life of a Peking Policeman ; Fortress Besieged ; Spring in a Small Town ; Ballet The Peony Pavilion. His book Li Liuyi’s Pure Drama· Collection of Dramas has been published by the People 's Literature Publishing House in China, translated into many languages and published worldwide.
Drama project "Li Liuyi • China Made" (2012-2015)
In 2012, Li Liuyi launched the drama project “Li Liuyi • China Made”. The project includes three works of ancient Greek tragedy, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Prometheus Bound, and the Chinese epic King Gesar . Antigone and Oedipus Rex have been performed in public. Prometheus Bound will be launched early next year in 2015. As stated in its programme note, “Re-assuming the responsibility of being a practitioner of drama”, Li Liuyi’s Antigone has realized a kind of “self-awareness”—it stands at the crossroad of Chinese experience and Western classics and has completed a conversation with the times and the world. As a contemporary Chinese director, Li Liuyi has successfully caught the soul of the Ancient Greek classic drama through his “translated” work of drama -- Oedipus Rex. He broke through the high wall between the Oriental and Occidental cultures and civilizations, and seamlessly joined the thoughts and emotions of the people from the ancient and distant foreign land, and of the local people in the contemporary times.
