A live radio show of Agatha Christie's Murder On Air opens the 2019 Wuxi Grand Theater Drama Festival on April 13. [Photo/wxdjy.polyt.cn]

A live radio show of Agatha Christie's Murder On Air opened the 2019 Wuxi Grand Theater Drama Festival on April 13.

Made up of three radio plays, Personal Call, Butter in a Lordly Dish and Three Blind Mice, the show featured famous voice actors telling the stories. The vividness of the characters stood out sharply against the simple costumes and setting.

The Wuxi Grand Theater Drama Festival will run from April to November, featuring 28 productions, mostly from China, performed a total of 36 times. It will be the biggest ever drama festival to hit the city.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, the National Ballet of China will stage the country's first original ballet production, the Red Detachment of Women. [Photo/wxdjy.polyt.cn]

To mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, the National Ballet of China will stage the country's first original ballet production, the Red Detachment of Women, which first premiered in the capital in 1964. It is best known in the West as the ballet performed for former US president Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1972, and will run in Wuxi on July 6 and 7.

Other highlights include a concert by the Beerhoven Philharmonic, which will be presented on May 14 and feature renowned Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini. The famous Chinese drama Thunderstorm, known as Lei Yu in Chinese, will be staged on May 24.

Some 4,000 tickets have been sold at low prices to attract residents to attend the exciting event and experience the theater first hand.

The Beerhoven Philharmonic will stage a concert on May 14. [Photo/wxdjy.polyt.cn]