China dramatists wage 'guerrilla' fight for artistic freedom

An actress playing US espion whistleblower Edward Swden imitates a gun with her hand, aims it at a security camera, and fires -- t exactly sort of st content that's green-lighted in China's surveillance state.

But artists like scene's writer-director Wang Chong operate in what might be considered China's version of "off-off-Broway", small, often impromptu, avant-garde performances in which independent show-runners walk a razor-thin line between censorship and artistic freedom.

"A rebellious spirit is very dangerous. If an artist is in trouble in China everybody will cut connections, cooperation and conversation with m," Wang said of risks.

Wang spoke to AFP on sidelines of recent 7th annual Wuzhen atre Festival in eponymous ancient canal town near Shanghai.

Wuzhen's government promotes town as an arts center, which affords directors a sliver more creative leeway than elsewhere.

But even in Wuzhen, Wang, a tall and lanky 37-year-old, employs what he calls "tricks" to avoid trouble from a government that is pushing "red" atre extolling one-party Communist state.

Independent directors today often perform pop-up style, in art galleries, museums, or coffee shops, avoiding proper atre venues, which require pre-approval of scripts and are frequented by government officials monitoring for sensitive content.

"If you stick to giving a voice to deep social issues, you will finally figure out a way around rules," Wang ded.

Many atres in China host modern Western-style dramas, but much st fare still consists of Communist paeons or re-tellings of ancient tales.

But Wang and his peers push envelope with avant-garde productions that skirt censor's red line.

His latest -- a thinly veiled swipe at China's surveillance state -- was performed outdoors in Wuzhen by four randomly selected audience members who received ir lines and prompts via hephones.

founder of 11-year-old Beijing-based performance group atre du Reve Experimental, Wang has h plays shut down before.

"Mr. Big", a production centering on early 20th-century dissident writer Lu Xun that touched on sensitive issues, opened in atres in 2016, but was later abruptly closed.

Wang likened it to death of a child and indicative of what he calls a "glass ceiling" for sensitive content.

Ar invative playwright, Wang Boxin, 34-year-old founder of a Shanghai-based atre troupe, uses satire and dark humour in productions that shine a light on what he considers contemporary China's declining moral values.

His latest, which debuted on Wuzhen's centuries-old plazas, was inspired by police detention this year of a young Chinese cartoonist on vague accusations of "insulting Chinese people" with satirical cartoons depicting m as pig-heed gluttons.

Wang's darkly comic piece was performed by actors wearing animal hes.

"As long as you don't sell tickets, you won't be asked for qualifications and can keep your artistic freedom," said Wang, who formed his self-funded troupe this year.

Self-taught atre director Huang Baosheng also sts his plays, which revolve around pressures faced by Chinese young people, in what he calls "guerrilla" style -- in friends' homes, coffee shops, even an underground parking lot.

But that's due more to financing than politics.

"Money is my biggest trouble, a drag on my creativity," said Huang, 25, who co-founded a troupe three years ago in nearby city of Hangzhou, supporting it with his earnings as a copywriter at an internet company.

His lack of formal atre training makes government or private funding elusive, while ors say edgy content also repels sponsors.

Still, growing numbers of Chinese independent impresarios are emerging to find increasing interest from young Chinese, Huang said.

But censorship hovers overhe, said Wang Chong.

"(Chinese authorities) want atre to become an industry like Broway, to make money like movies do and contribute to national GDP," he said, but y also want it "pure and strictly controllable".

Wang, who regularly sts his edgier performances overseas, will perform a new one-man play in Australia next year starring himself. me: censorship.

"It's my long-term dream that China's atre censorship system will collapse one day. If so, (forthcoming) play will have accomplished its mission.