White Church of Aranya, where the Aranya Theater Festival will take place on June 16, 2022, in Qinhuangdao, North China's Hebei Province. Photo: Courtesy of Aranya Theater Festival

The Aranya Theater Festival 2022 will run from June 16 to 26, during which 60 percent of the performances will take place outdoors given the pandemic situation in the Aranya community, a seaside holiday destination in north China's Hebei Province known for its cultural and artistic ambience.  

Themed "moment and eternity," the festival will include 28 stage works by 31 domestic and foreign directors to provide audiences with theater performances integrating diverse aesthetics.

"If a moment is love, eternity will be memories; If a moment is steps, eternity will be the path," said Meng Jinghui, founder and artistic director of the festival, quoting a poem to explain the meaning behind the theme.

Meng expressed the hope that through the theme of moment and eternity, "more interesting ideas can be presented in this place, while allowing the festival to have diverse, open and inclusive aesthetics." 

Visual poster of the Aranya Theater Festival. Photo: Courtesy of Aranya Theater Festival

The main poster for the festival uses changing natural colors to reproduce the moment of sunrise and sunset by the seaside. The poster takes "polyhedron" as the main element, a metaphor for the multi-faceted reflection of real life. When the floating "polyhedron" is unfolded, a series of plays are released from the box. The person wearing the box headgear refers to an undefined figure visiting the festival, who can be both a member of the audience and a director. 

Well-known works such as Waiting for Godot, a version directed by Meng, will be presented to the audience. The first Chinese theater version of Frankenstein, an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley, will be presented during the festival, directed by Chinese director Li Ren. 

A ballet performance of Hamlet by the National Ballet of China will also be presented at the closing ceremony of the festival. 

As a unique seaside theater festival in China, the Aranya Theater Festival, which was first held in 2021, has attracted wide attention with its unique style. During last year's festival, hundreds of dramatists and artists from various fields such as literature, music, dance and architecture gathered together to share their ideas and works.

Through various interactive forms such as talks, workshops, screenings, theatrical parades and bonfires, all held by the seaside, the Aranya Theater Festival provides a new experience for theater in China.