Drama - The Fade, The BlueOct. 20 - Oct. 21, 2023 Venue Duanjun Theatre, STA
Winter it is. A desolate and barren community stands amongst the wuthering wind, like the end of the world. A man returns to his empty house, searching for a secret hidden within the two-bedroom house. He is about to tell a memory that is kept here, a love story that takes place during the time of quarantine. A man, and a woman. An upstair room and a downstair one. Everything unfolds at twelve o'clock midnight in the first room, and everything ends at six o'clock morning in the second room. Progress is constantly stagnated, communication blocked by languages, and bodies separated by the ceiling. The illusionist downstairs curls up in his room, measuring the distance between himself and life. The new tenant upstairs reverses day and night, weaving an ensemble of noises and whispers. The man, and the woman, conflicted by time and connected through sound, gradually walk into each other's heart after fourteen sleep-aiding ASMR nights. The indistinct sound from upstairs still lingers around the man's ears. Love of young birds, intertwining with the history of the community, gives the faded buildings a new coat of color. He wanders through the gray courtyard like a ghost, trapped in the cycle of repetitive memories. How can he turn the fleeting love into eternity?
Ma Xuan
Ma Xuan graduated from the Dramatic Literature Department of the Central Academy of Drama. She directed the online theater production White Night and participated in the 15th Beijing Fringe Festival. Her original script "This Morning and Last Night's Dream" was selected for the Shanghai YOUNG Theater GOAT Special Youth Theater Exhibition Drama Reading Unit. As a playwright, she collaborated with the New Youth Group on three adaptation works: Metamorphosis, World on a Wire and The Master and Margarita. These works have been invited to participate in prestigious art festivals such as Wuzhen Theater Festival and Aranya Theater Festival for multiple times.
