TAN ZEEN
Diary of A Madman
March 2012, New Youth Group
Writer: Lu Xun
Director: Li Jianjun
Literature consultant: Xue Yi
Dramaturgy: Zhuang Jiayun
Performance designer: Tan Zeen
Lighting designer: Han Jiang
Costume designer: Wang Mao
“A Madman’s Diary” written 100 years ago, uses “people eat people” and "save the kid" to criticize the social reality back then.
The design uses construction remains as the core image. Sourcing from a real demolition site at a suburb in Beijing, I selected a 100-metre square space in it, and bring it to the theatre space as it is. We can still feel the trace of life in those broken relics......
Those bricks can shape the movement and gesture of actors. The sound of bricks and the dust they created were effectively used in the performance as well. The whole relics were placed on top of a movable platform, which can be divided and regrouped into different compositions in the space.
Since its successful premiere in 2011, Beijing, it received many good reviews and was invited to tour in Macao, Taipei, Tokyo, Berlin etc.