Huang Ruo and Jennifer Wen Ma’s Paradise Interrupted, an arresting new music theatre blending traditional classical Chinese idioms from the Ming Dynasty and contemporary music, is sensually set against a beautiful garden inspired by origami and calligraphy.

Based on a scene from the 1598 Kunqu or Kun opera “The Peony Pavilion”, Paradise Interrupted opens with a woman alone on stage. She meets her lover in an erotic dream, which triggers a passionate search for an unattainable ideal through a lush, interactive garden grown from dynamic paper sculptures. The romance soon becomes an empowering tale of self-actualisation.

Paradise Interrupted is a novel hybrid, at once a continuation of tradition yet entirely new, which emphasises the potential of the very old and the power of its young creators.

Sung in Mandarin with English and Chinese surtitles.

Paradise Interrupted is co-commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), Spoleto Festival USA, Lincoln Center Festival and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts.

Rating: General