Shakespearean Inheritance and Innovation in Chinese Campus Theatre
Abstract
Infinite Art Troupe (博艺·莎剧社) (IAT) of Sichuan International Studies University is one of the earliest established drama societies in the Southwest region of China. This essay unpacks IAT’s creative practice in making Shakespeare plays and original productions, exemplifying the vitality and creativity of campus theatre in China. It also explores how Shakespearean drama has sparked students’ imagination and creativity, inspiring them to connect classical works with contemporary social realities and to use theatre as a medium for observation, experience, reflection and expression.
Keywords: Infinite Art Troupe, campus theatre, Shakespeare’s plays, theatre practice, Chinese university students
In China, campus theatre usually serves as a platform for non-theatre majors to explore and showcase their artistic talents. Its primary mission is not to cultivate professional theatre practitioners but to fulfill theatre’s broader educational role in personal and intellectual development.
In this context, the Infinite Art Troupe (博艺·莎剧社, IAT), a student-founded theatre society at Sichuan International Studies University (SISU), established in 2009, presents a compelling case for study. First, SISU is an ordinary university located in Chongqing in Southwest China that primarily focuses on foreign language education, but lacks a dedicated theatre programme. As a result, IAT operates without professional teachers, theatre or workshop space. It lacks the financial support available to other theatre academies and exists in stark contrast to student theatre groups in economically developed regions such as Beijing and Shanghai, where access to theatre productions and industry resources is significantly greater.
The beginning of IAT is in 2007, when the students staged Hamlet and participated in the Second Chongqing University Students Drama Festival. The students made all the props and costumes themselves and presented an emotional performance that was warmly received. It was innovatively staged with two actors playing Hamlet in turns and, in some cases, sharing the stage at the same time. Each actor wore a black or a white shirt respectively to visualize Hamlet’s conflicts and hesitation in the story. This creates the record of the earliest performances of Shakespeare in English in Chongqing. It drew the attention of Chongqing Dramatists’ Association and local media, with newspapers, TV stations and online platforms all covering the event and praising the students’ creativity and dedicated performances. The performance also leads to the establishment of the drama club IAT in 2009. From then on, IAT rehearses Shakespeare plays in English every year.
Recognizing the lack of experience in theatre-making, IAT supervisors and students began to take training opportunities offered by Chongqing Dramatists’ Association and watch theatre as much as possible. They believe their performances have to be creative and original, not just restaging what they have seen from professionals. For example, in Much Ado about Nothing (2015), students made a garden table from used foam boards and light wood sticks. It is meant to be light and is designed for Beatrice to hide underneath when the table is covered with a big and light table cloth. When she gives her love soliloquy afterwards, Beatrice lifts the table on her shoulder like an umbrella, and she even puts the table cloth on her head, pretending it is a wedding veil.
Another instance is King Lear (2013): chairs and tables from previous court scenes are turned upside down and scattered on the stage to create the wilderness where Lear is abandoned, which also mirrors Lear’s situation of his life completely turned over. This performance is an excellent practice of poor theatre and magnifies the acting techniques of student actors.
On top of the creative performance choices, IAT explores the possibilities of Shakespeare adaptation in both forms and themes while maintaining the authenticity of the play. In 2016, IAT members embarked on a new form of original work: adapting A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a musical with the original texts as lyrics. This project was a bold experiment, especially with Puck’s songs, which incorporated rap style, giving them a lively and rebellious energy. “The fourth wall” breaks for Puck too—Puck walked through the middle of the audience, while singing rap songs of searching the “Athenian man”, which thrilled the audience. This is the first time for IAT to create a musical and the first time to make a transformative adaptation of Shakespeare. With this innovation there are imperfections, for example: the start of the four lovers’ argument when all four lovers reunite in the forest is a song, but the climax of such a chaos is not a song, which decreases the musicality when the highest conflict is staged through dialogues instead of songs.
In the perspective of themes, Henry V (2018) is a significant practice in Shakespeare adaptation. At SISU, where women outnumber men by 4 to 1, IAT struggles to cast male roles in Shakespeare’s plays. This means that many skilled actresses compete for the few female roles. It highlights a broader issue faced by the society’s female members: intense competition among women and male-biased employment discrimination. This heightened female awareness eventually led to the IAT’s all-female graduation production of Henry V (2018), a 90-minute play adapted from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V of England, and focusing on Hal’s growth and transformation. It is set in the traditionally male-dominated IT industry, which echoes the original male-dominated history: Hotspur’s rebellious warfare becomes a hackers’ war, and the famous Agincourt is a game project that Hal/Henry V tries to take down. The punk and rock style of Eastercheap “club” contrasts to the elite temperament of Lancaster tech company, which makes the scene where Hal removes her heavy makeup, coloured hair pieces and punk accessories a powerful transformation on the stage.
An interesting coincidence is that Shakespeare’s Globe has also revived the trilogy of Henry IV and Henry V as a part of their summer season in 2019, directed by Sarah Bedi with female Hotspur, Falstaff and Henry V. It is evident that IAT members have improved their performance-making skills and can generate ideas that are similar to professional and world-leading theatre companies’.
In addition to Shakspeare’s plays, IAT also makes original productions. These original productions in Chinese are written, produced and performed by IAT students. In 2010, three students—Shi Zheng (郑奭), Yi Jing (景怡) and Chengcheng Li (李承成)—created a play titled Memories of the Old House (《老房记忆》) in the Chongqing dialect. The story centres on an elderly man’s deep attachment to his old home, which faces demolition. One scene, in which the old man loses his sanity amid the ruins but gradually regains his senses with the comfort and care of his neighbours, draws inspiration from King Lear. This was IAT’s first original stage play. By 2025, ten plays of different lengths, themes and theatrical styles have been written and produced.
Juliet in Starlight (《星光里的朱丽叶》) (2014), written by supervisor Li Zeng, draws from IAT experiences in performing Shakespeare. The play focuses on a university student with a degenerative eye condition, who dreams of playing Juliet before she loses her sight entirely. Initially, her fellow society members misunderstand her intentions, which leads to conflicts. Ultimately, they learn the truth and come together to help her fulfil her dream. Using the play-within-a-play structure, the play explores how classic Shakespearean theatre relates to the lives of contemporary university students.
Student-written original plays have flourished, often drawing inspiration from classical works to reflect contemporary issues. None of Your Business (《与你无关》) (2017) is a problem play inspired by Titus Andronicus, addressing social indifference to sexual violence and a victim’s tragic end. The Hero (《大侠》) (2017) portrays a protagonist who, like Angelo in Measure for Measure, struggles within a web of hypocrisy and lies. The play Paper (《纸》) (2021) echoes Timon of Athens in its critique of how money corrupts human nature. In Where the Green Hills Bear Witness (《青山见》) (2024), the protagonist faces a moral dilemma reminiscent of Brutus in Julius Caesar.
Both Shakespeare’s plays and original plays produced by IAT, though some may seem unpolished, are brave experiments with diverse forms of theatrical art that are embodied with their thoughtful observation and reflection of the classics and the reality. They are validated by awards of various regional and national festivals including China Campus Drama Festival. Among them all, the wide use of Poor Theatre can be regarded as a signature for IAT’s production. The auditorium has a massive 17-metre wide stage, which makes it expensive to fill with realistic set design, given the limited budget for each production. However, it gradually becomes an enjoyable challenge. It is easy to notice that a great number of props are reused again and again, forming a unique “ecosystem” of performance-making in IAT.
In conclusion, IAT exemplifies the vitality and creativity of campus theatre in China with productions that have been performed and recognized with numerous awards in various theatre competitions and festivals. It also explores how Shakespearean drama has sparked students’ imagination and creativity, inspiring them to connect classical works with contemporary social realities and to use theatre as a medium for observation, experience, reflection and expression.
*Huiyue Wen is a theatre director and dramaturg with experience in Shakespeare’s plays, musical theatre and new writings. Since 2014, she has been directing, acting and making Shakespeare’s plays and original theatre performances in various drama/theatre festivals in China. With training experience in Shakespeare’s Globe, and an MA degree in Theatre Practice from University of Exeter in 2019, she has taught drama in China from 2020 to 2022, and been assistant and dramaturg in various new theatre projects in London since 2022. Currently she is a Ph.D. student at Goldsmiths, University of London, researching on screen-to-stage musical theatre adaptations.
**Li Zeng is a member of the Chongqing Shakespeare Society and the China Theatre Association. She is currently a lecturer at the School of Business English, Sichuan International Studies University. She teaches British and American Literature and Shakespearean Drama. She has published about thirty papers, reviews and scripts. Since 2009, she has served as the supervisor for the university’s Infinite Art Troupe, leading the group to multiple accolades at Chongqing’s and the national University Drama Festival, including awards for play-writing.
Copyright © 2025 Huiyue Wen and Li Zeng
Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, #31, June 2025
e-ISSN: 2409-7411
This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
