The Cat God in the Forbidden City, an original song and dance drama co-produced by the China National Theater for Children and the Palace Museum, is slated to premiere in Beijing on Saturday.
Through the perspective of a cat, the play tells a heartwarming story of friendship and companionship, memory and history, as well as life and eternity. It aims to promote the Forbidden City, an embodiment of fine traditional Chinese culture, to audiences all over the world, according to the play's producers.
The drama, adapted from the eponymous children's book by Feng Li, director of China National Theater for Children, follows a kitten called Baby, who out of strong attachment to its human companions in the Forbidden City, travels through hundreds of years by chance to what is now the Palace Museum. The feline reunites with his old friends—cultural relics housed in the museum—and becomes a true guardian of the museum through a flurry of events.
The production marks the first collaborative outcome of the theater and the museum, which signed a strategic cooperation agreement this June to work together in play creation, brand building, and creative cultural product development.
The play brings together a group of top-notch creators in the country, including composer Li Haiying, director Jiao Gang, stage designer Feng Lei, lighting designer Ren Dongsheng, character design Cao Tingting, multimedia designer Bao Erwen, choreographer Liu Xiaoyi, and production consultant Li Dong.
The play is not only for children, but for people of all ages, according to the creative team.
The carefully selected cast features Li Xiaoming, a laureate of the Plum Blossom Award, the country's top honor for theatrical performers; outstanding young actors Song Jianlin and Yin Liang; and Xu Yuanbo and Li Yuanyuan, who played in the hit musical Cats produced by the Japanese Shiki Theater Company.
The Cat God in the Forbidden City is a fruit of creative transformation and innovative development of the excellent traditional Chinese culture carried by the Palace Museum, said Wang Yuegong, deputy director of the museum, at a news conference on Wednesday. The drama lets cultural relics come alive, gives history and cultural heritage a voice, and makes museum collection accessible to the audience, he added.
He hoped that the musical would help communicate the significance and value of protecting and inheriting cultural heritage to young audience and inspire in them a sense of cultural mission.
"I hope the production could pique children's curiosity in the Palace Museum, stretch their imagination about the historical site, and open a door for them to learn more about excellent traditional Chinese culture," Feng said.
An international version of The Cat God in the Forbidden City is expected to be made in the near future, according to the theater director.
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