During August 5^th-7^th, 2022, the Beijing-style drama Beijing Neighbours will go on stage again at the NCPA. It was adapted from the novel Landlords in Beijing by Mr. JING Yongming, who won the Lao She Literature Prize for Excellent Novellas.

Beijing Neighbours is adapted by the renowned playwright FU Ling and directed by TANG Ye (national first-class director). This drama gives shape to human relationships and worldly affairs in Beijing in the late 20^th century. Against a backdrop of the massive influx of people from outside Beijing, the locals and migrants collide and adapt until they understand and integrate with each other, despite regional cultural differences and varying living habits.

The story background is set for Beijing in the 1990s. A series of stories take place between drifters in Beijing and the locals in No. A-32 Courtyard of a hutong. The middle-aged Writer LIU, who is not a native, runs a restaurant in the capital city and enriches his own experiences here. Writer LIU and his wife rent a room in No. A-32 Courtyard near the restaurant and live there. Through the contacts and acquaintances with neighbours such as Policeman ZHAO, Old Man YANG and Master HAI, Writer LIU gets accustomed to local life dominated by local residents. Policeman ZHAO and other neighbours also understand the struggles of non-locals through Writer LIU and HU Dong. The integration of the two regional cultures, embodied by both sides, finally gets achieved.

With strong flavour and actual landscape of daily life, Beijing Neighbours is a realistic drama with dark humour. Director TANG Ye not only spares no efforts to embody Beijing culture, but also gives vent to the delicate emotions between the roles through the unique perspective of women. In the choreography design, the creative team of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre is invited to shed light on a small part of the city in both virtual and real styles. “Rotary Stage Setting” is applied throughout the whole process to display a complete “Beijing quadrangle dwelling” on the stage. The original life scene of a Beijing hutong gets vividly presented.

YAN Wei, SONG Tianshuo, ZOU Jian, WU Yu, ZHU Shaopeng and other young artists will also join in the performance. From the perspective of daily life in hutong, character background of the so-called “drifters in Beijing” and the locals will be demonstrated respectively.