BOOK ONLINE FOR 'IN THE BAG' BY CLICKING HERE

STOP PRESS The Guardian newspaper have published an in-depth feature on the development of In the Bag. You can find it at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1474747,00.html

Post show discussion Wed 11 May

‘Must have’, ‘dream shop’, ‘clear trend’, ‘top flight manager’ – the business worlds and the boutiques of modern day Beijing are alive with aspiration and buzz words.

Faced with new possibilities, two couples are caught in the midst of China’s cultural change.

In a 31 day month, a young office manager finds himself rostered to work 39 days. His wife has a spending habit she can manage and a pregnancy she can’t. His older brother, a novelist whose book is never quite finished, is trying to leave his girlfriend but never quite gets as far as the door. Although she can’t leave him, she’s already engaged to someone else. Someone rich.

In it’s original context, ‘In the Bag’ means both ‘safe and secure’ and ‘trapped and contained’. Hard-edged but tender, Wang Xiaoli’s play explores a culture torn between its history and its contemporary reality.

A Traverse Theatre Playwrights in Partnership project, In the Bag is the first full production in the UK of a contemporary Chinese play. This commission was made possible by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

WANG XIAOLI lives in Shunyi, on the outskirts of Beijing. A former journalist, she has written for television, film and theatre. Recent projects include the screenplay, Return In Winter, for film director Shi Runjiu and the short play, Under A Street Light, performed as a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court, London. Xiaoli is currently working on a full-length play, about a Chinese woman living in London.

RONAN O’DONNELL lives in Edinburgh. Previous plays include The Chic Nerds (Traverse), Brazil (Theatre of Imagination), Spambam (LookOut Theatre Company) and Lysistrata (Common Force Community Theatre). Ronan has just completed The Doll Tower, a play based on the life of T E Lawrence and his Scottish bodyguard John Bruce (LLT/Unity Theatre), and is currently writing The Ned’s Opera for Common Force Community Theatre.

Directed by Lorne Campbell
Designed by Jon Bauser
Lighting by Philip Gladwell
Sound by DJRed6
Cast: Tuyet Le, Michelle Macerlean,
Daniel York, Mo Zainal