Top Restaurant

When: Dec 27-Jan 9, 7:30 pm

Where: The Capital Theater, Beijing

Produced by Beijing People's Art Theater, the drama tells of the vicissitudes of the time-honored Peking duck restaurant Fujude in Beijing.

In the early 20th century, Fujude's manager is forced to retire because of illness. He hands over the restaurant to his two sons. However, the young men are not interested in the family business. While the older son is obsessed with Peking Opera, the younger one likes martial arts.

As the two cannot cover their expenses from the restaurant's income, the vice-manager Wang Zixi recommends his best friend, Lu Mengshi, to manage the business. With help from his lover Yuchu, chef Luo Datou and head waiter Chang Gui, Lu manages to revive Fujude's popularity. A decade later, the two brothers, jealous of the restaurant's success, want to drive Lu away.

Murder on the Orient Express

When: Dec 25-Jan 12, time varies

Where: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express is full of dramatic plot twists.

Board the exotic and mysterious Orient Express as it takes off into the opulence and grandeur of the 1930s, with a train full of suspects, each with a motive and an alibi.

Detective Hercule Poirot is determined to find out who did it in the thrilling murder mystery. Ten passengers board the train that's traveling from Istanbul to Western Europe. But after the train unexpectedly stops in the isolated, snow-swept mountains, only nine of them are still alive. A man has been murdered in his room overnight, and suddenly every passenger becomes a suspect. Tensions rise as Poirot searches for the killer lurking in their midst who just may strike again.

Two Dogs' Opinions on Life

When: Dec 31-Jan 19, time varies

Where: East Pioneer Theater, Beijing

How would you see the world if you were a dog? You may just find out if you go to see Two Dogs' Opinions on Life directed by the avant-garde Meng Jinghui.

Audience members will get to explore some of the big questions plaguing Chinese society from a canine perspective. The two dogs at the center of the play will look at all kinds of everyday issues, from online relationships to weight loss campaigns, poisonous food to traffic jams, and even sky-high education fees.

The play combines the creative techniques of Chinese comedy folk performance, Italian improvisational comedy, vaudeville, and absurdist drama. Its dark comedy explores the relationship between ideals and real challenges of life in contemporary urban and rural China.

Mr. Donkey

When: Jan 4 and 5, 7:30 pm

Where: Renmin University of China Rulun Auditorium, Beijing Writer-directors Zhou Shen and Liu Lu set the play in a rural village in the early 1940s, where a group of idealistic academics run a school. To raise funds, the teachers trick the government into paying a salary to a donkey that brings them water.

When a bureaucrat arrives, the faculty scrambles to find someone who can pretend to be Mr. Donkey.

Beneath the Red Banner

When: Feb 18-22 and 25-29, 7:30 pm; Feb 23 and March 1, 2 pm

Where: Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center

Beneath the Red Banner is adapted from Lao She's autobiographical novel.

The play is set in Beijing at the end of the 19th century. Capturing the events shortly after his birth in the winter of 1899, Lao She's pen vividly depicted the life of the Manchu people, during the turmoil as the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was dying. Foreign troops invaded, the peasants revolted and democratic reform was carried out－but soon failed.

The Manchus had a rigid sense of organization. Their military and civilian communities were grouped into eight banners, identified by colors, and the red banner was one of them.

As the Qing Dynasty declines, the nobles managed to continue their depraved life and were not fully aware of the nation's dangerous position, and their future. But there were others who realized that the nation's fate was hanging in the balance.

They devoted their lives to fight against the invaders.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

When: March 12-15, 7:30 pm

Where: Beijing Poly Theater

Of all the works of William Shakespeare that have graced the theaters in China, Hamlet is arguably the most famous.

The latest version of the play, entitled The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, directed by Li Liuyi, will soon hit Beijing Poly Theater.

Veteran Chinese actors Hu Jun, Pu Cunxi and Lu Fang will play the leading roles.

Before The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Li directed the Chinese version of Shakespeare's King Lear.

The National Center for the Performing Arts has been working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, a theater organization based in the Bard's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, on the Shakespeare Folio Project. This aims to make the playwright's work more accessible to Chinese speakers.