Young Chinese director She Mujie, a graduate of the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (class of G. R. Trostyaneckiy), an assistant trainee at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts – GITIS (class of the iconic director Anatoly Vasiliev), together with his Babel Theatre Collective, will present a new production based on Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Lady with the Dog”. Critics have praised the production presented at the prestigious Wuzhen Theatre Festival: "Exceptional work – sophisticated and avant-garde yet accessible, perfectly balancing intellectual depth with theatrical delight. "
She Mujie: "We emerged in response to the parable of Babel – that ancient story where linguistic barriers and human conflicts cut humanity off from the sky. Named after this legend, we strive to dismantle communication barriers through theatrical art. We are curious. <…> We deliberately chose "The Lady with the Dog” – a beloved Russian story – for our production in China. For us, this was both an experiment and a challenge. We took Chekhov's text as a basis and adhered to it faithfully, but we also wanted to find a different "theatrical language" to perform Chekhov and enter the world of his prose. Throughout our work, we sought to answer the question: in our human society full of emotions, if we temporarily abandon words, what will we be left with?"
