Overview
Peony Pavilion
Object Play
Installation
16th century
China

One of the most performed dramas by Tang Xianzu (1550–1616), The Peony Pavilion is a comic-yet-tragic romance in which dreams, facts, images, and reality become fatally entangled. Set during the waning days of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), the play centers on a young girl who falls asleep in a garden. In her dream, she begins a passionate romance that builds into an obsession after she awakens and ultimately consumes her. Before her death of lovesickness, she leaves a self-portrait in a garden with the futile hope that the illusory lover of her dream will pick it up.

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With refined, lavish lyrics and sophisticated philosophical overtones, The Peony Pavillion has been hailed as a high point of Chinese literature.

Integrating the arts of stage design and interactive digital media, CAMLab’s Peony Pavilion project explores a new prototype of immersive storytelling to re-stage Chinese classical dramas. Conjuring the imaginary world of The Peony Pavilion, this immersive exhibition creates a sequence of spaces in which projected images, objects, and architecture compose a world that straddles reality and illusion. Each room of the show features an interactive digital installation. The prototypes of the installations come from a series of symbolic objects from the drama: a vase, a mirror, a lamp, a screen, and a box. By interacting with these installations, the audiences are led into different episodes of the play, experiencing and exploring its multifaceted cultures in a non-linear way.

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