Li Dan

“ASSASSIN,” a modern play with ancient costumes, will be staged in Shenzhen on Wednesday.

With star actors Pu Cunxin and He Bing playing the leading roles, the crew also comprises luminaries like renowned director Lin Zhaohua, Oscar-winning music composer Tan Dun, avant-garde choreographer Wang Yin and stage designer Yi Liming.

The show, which premiered in Beijing on Aug. 3 and has since been staged in Shanghai, has won mixed reviews from critics and audiences.

Based on the story of the assassin Yu Rang from the book “Historical Records” by Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian, the play tells of the doomed assassination attempts carried out by Jin warrior Yu on the life of king Zhao Xiangzi, who freed Yu once but executed him in the end.

At the beginning of the show, an actor walks across the stage carrying a white flag on which is written “a major event occurred in the kingdom of Jin in 453 B.C.” Then a city scene is revealed on stage, covered in red light, with replicas of human heads on the city walls. In this scary atmosphere, Zhao (king of Zhao, Pu Cunxin) comes to the front of the stage guarded by his warriors.

While almost all have been impressed by the vivid sets, the rousing music, and the actors’ performances, some feel the story has been told in a far too simple way.

But the director said he had purposely kept the plot simple.

“The story is simple. I hope it can evoke in the audience their own judgment and contemplations on history,” said Lin.

The show ends not with Yu’s death, but after Yu’s wife is humiliated by others.

“I don’t see it as a historical play, nor a pure tragedy. History has played many jokes on us, and this is a joke we play with history,” he added.