Spoken Drama and Its Doubles: Thunderstorm 2.0 by Wang Chong and Théâtre du Rêve Expérimental

Thunderstorm 2.0 at the 2018 Under the Radar Festival introduced a modern Chinese classic to US audiences via radical adaptation and an assemblage of textual deconstruction, live-feed video, and Suzhou pingtan performance. It offered a timely interrogation of gender politics and deftly triangulated among tensions of live vs. mediated performance, folk traditions vs. modern drama, Chinese text vs. foreign context, and re-presenting a canonical play vs. flying “under the radar.”