Solo Theater Piece Directed By Meng Jinghui Comes to Asia Society, Today

Directed by influential Chinese avant-garde theater director Meng Jinghui and starring Huang Xiangli, the compelling solo performance Nine and a Half Love opens at Asia Society in New York on December 14 and 15, 2018, as part of the Creative China Festival 2018.

As one of China's most significant and celebrated theater directors, Meng is the touchstone for contemporary theater production with his incisive wit and radical style. His unique and dynamic artistic expression has become a notable phenomenon in China where, since the 1990s, he has presented over 40 productions on stage, garnering widespread public recognition.

Nine and a Half Love is the third one-woman performance collaboration between Meng and Huang, following Letter from an Unknown Woman and Bonjour Tristesse. Based on a true story of revenge in southern China, the play reconstructs the dramatic narrative by combining elements from Homer's epics, Greek tragedy, Nietzche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blind Chance, among other works of inspiration.

Nine and a Half Love mixes disparate genres-magic realism, realism, and surrealism-and evokes an infinite imagination through the protagonist's unflinching self-analysis and subconscious soliloquy. Using montage to combine poetry, myth, and allegory, the play traverses across genres and cultures to reveal a narrative in three layers: the regret for lost time, frustration about destiny, and the volatility of love.

Hailed as "Queen of Monodrama," Huang's expressive style brings the characters to life. Huang's powerful and forthright performance takes the audience through a myriad of expressions-absurdity, reality, lust, redemption, death, humanity, and love. Renowned in Chinese contemporary theater, she has performed in France, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and Egypt.

Tickets are $20 for Asia Society Members; $22 for Students/Seniors; and $25 for Nonmembers, and may be purchased online at AsiaSociety.org/NY or by calling the Box Office at 212-327-ASIA (2742).