Within The Forbidden City: and The Wild Land

One of the most heart rending and unforgettable tragic story of an Emperor and his Favorite Consort in Chinese history. Set against the background of three major historical events and never ending intrigues in the Imperial court called The Forbidden City the love story could not but end in tragedy. Emperor Guang-xu, the second to the last Emperor of Manchu dynasty China had the ambition to save his nation from destruction by the aggressive foreign powers. He desired to implemented a comprehensive reform of all branches of the government but met with tremendous opposition by the conservatives who were backed by the absolute despot Grand Empress Dowager Ci-xi who kept him in isolation in a deserted desolate place and put his Consort to death. In The Wild Land, a woman in the 1930s China who dared to defy her mother-in-law, betray her loving husband, and ran away with her lover was not only a figment of the playwright's imagination it was his revolting voice against the Chinese society of that era. He championed overthrowing traditional rules and liberating women from being bound by them, The English adaptation has kept the basic plots and characterization of the roles of the original while the dialogues were rewritten rather than translated.