Rescuing One's Sister In The Wind And Dust

This semi-staged reading will take place at the Almeida, as part of Six Artists in Search of a Play. The reading will be preceded by a Lion Dance.

In a haunted world of illusions and transactions, where a mother can sell her daughter into the life of a courtesan, Yinzhang is lucky to have the older, more experienced Pan’er as her sworn sister. Seductress, adventurer, trickster, Pan’er will stop at nothing to save her sister from a disastrous marriage.

Based on the twelfth-century proto-feminist Chinese classic by Guan Hanqing, Amy Ng’s adaptation Rescuing One’s Sister In The Wind And Dust is a witty, boisterous romp about sisters doing it for themselves.

Anthony Lau on why he chose this play: “It is a rollicking adventure story full of ghosts, bad men, teahouses, courtesans and a 21st century heroine in a 12th century world. Growing up, I watched a lot of cantonese movies that had a really unique flavour – period pieces that were anachronistic in its tone and humour. In Amy Ng’s adaptation, not only has she taken a snapshot of 12th century China, but she has also captured something of this idiosyncratic style, where period manner is juxtaposed with the vitality of living. Instead of any rarefied air, all that is good and bad in humanity is laid bare for us to laugh, dismay and rejoice over. This funny, high stakes caper is a story that hurtles along and had me rooting for our heroine from beginning to end.”

Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of the Chinese Classics Translation Project.

At least 1500 years old, Chinese Lion Dance is a tradition where costumed performers imitate the movement of a lion to the music of percussion, cymbals and gongs. Most often associated with Chinese New Year, it is a dance that brings good fortune, luck and chases away evil spirits.