Preview: Week 3 – Culture Month @ University of Leeds

This Monday we continue our weekly previews of this year’s Culture Month, brought to you especially by the University of Leeds and their Business Confucius Institute. This year’s is particularly important in that it’s the first bilaterally-agreed Year of Cultural Exchange between the UK and China – a fact that’s given way to a full roster of events on and around the university campus. Read on to see what Culture Month’s third week has in store…

On October 12th, stage@leeds plays host to the launch of a very special international collaboration. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Tang Xianzu and William Shakespeare’s deaths, the University of Leeds and China’s University of International Business and Economics will be collaborating to devise a stage production inspired by Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and Tang’s ‘A Dream Under the Southern Bough’ respectively, which will ultimately be performed at both universities, the Edinburgh Fringe and the Tang Xianzu festival in Tang’s hometown Fuzhou. The project is launched by way of a reception with an introduction to the project, its fineries and its aims.

On October 13th, the Oriental City restaurant on Cross Stamford St becomes a playhouse as an original work-in-progress production is performed with accompaniment by a two-course meal from the restaurant. The play is the result of a collaboration between Mary Cooper and M. W. Sun, directed by David K. S. Tse, and concerns the stories of three Chinese people in and around West Yorkshire.

Keep your eyes on this space next Monday for a preview of the Culture Month’s closing events! In the meantime, check out the roster on this website.

James Grimshaw