What was life like for women in the early twentieth-century living in China? In this play we see a woman forced into an arranged marriage. Another opts to make her way as a courtesan. A bondmaid and her master fall in love, while a lonely wife seduces her stepson.
This is a devised show based on four of Chinese playwright Cao Yu's best known texts. Interspersed with scenes telling the stories of eight women are movement sequences and songs, and although they do not always add very much to the production, the singing is of a good standard.
It is difficult to follow the different plotlines and the play feels disjointed because of this. There is very little variation in pace and tone too, so just about all the dialogue is uttered with onerous significance. This means that the acting loses quite a lot of its impact.
There are some moments of beauty in the staging, but the actors are also often playing out of the light or burdened with scene changes that interrupt the flow of the piece even further. This could have been a striking production if it was more focused. As it stands it is a baffling collection of snippets.