Chinese audiences have enjoyed the best of Italian music, ballet, film, visual arts and fashion over the past 10 months thanks to the Year of Italy in China project. Now Beijing theatregoers are in for a special treat.

Companies from four different regions of Italy will present a variety of home-grown productions revealing the vitality of contemporary Italian theatre.

The series, staged at the Oriental Pioneer Theatre, include Teatro Gioco Vita's artful work The Firebird to be performed tonight and tomorrow.

Combining puppetry, shadow play, imaginative lighting, dance movements and, of course, Stravinsky's potent musical re-telling of a Russian folk tale, the 50-minute show captivates and enchants the eyes and ears. Directed by Fabrizio Montecchi, with designs and shadow puppets by Enrico Baj, it tells the story of Prince Ivan, who captures the glorious Firebird in the garden of Kastchei, an evil sorcerer.

In return for its freedom, the Firebird grants Ivan one of its golden feathers, pledging to protect the Prince from peril. In time, the Firebird not only assists in the rescue of Ivan's beloved Princess, who is held captive by the sorcerer, but also vanquishes demons and overcomes Kastchei.

In telling this story of mythical beings, bold royalty and high romance, the Piacenza-based Teatro Gioco Vita uses scaffolding and a pair of dancers, who manipulate puppets, to bring the tale to life. Special lighting projects the puppet shadows of various sizes and shapes with dazzling effect.

Teatrino Clandestino from Emilia Romagna will present Madre e Assassina (Mother and Murder) from November 16 to 18.

The company explores the relationship between the human dimension and the virtual one staging a physical theatrical performance while pictures projected on a screen, as in cinema.

Inspired by the Greek myth of Medea and based on a true story about a mother who kills her two children unable to stand their changes, the production technically involves two main parts. One is a video, evoking the plots key event, while the second is a theatrical episode, revealing some of the hypothetical interpretations of the tragic event.

The director, Pietro Babina, deliberately wants to emphasize the parallelism between the mother who kills her two children one morning and artistic research, which kills the actors, replacing them with the spiritualized bodies of their own ghosts.

Company Kinkaleri will perform Otto from November 23 to 25.

Founded in 1995, Kinkaleri consists of six artists from different disciplines and can be hardly described as a theatre company, transcending the genres boundaries.

Their works take place in theatres, galleries, museums and many other public places. The group's interdisciplinary approach corresponds with their exploration of "reality," and their search for that which separates the real from the surreal.

Their piece Otto is funny and absurd and won the 2002 "Patologo edition" award for the best dance/theatre production of the year in Italy.

Otto, the Italian for eight, is not only a number but also a humorous study of falling. Three performers, one after another, come out of nowhere and act out the most varied everyday situations that ending in a tumble.

By falling again and again, one man makes fun of death. Rising to his feet seems to defeat time and gravity. It annuls the destructive forces. Another performer keeps walking on and falling flat on his face, dropping whatever he was carrying.

To close the contemporary theatre series, Teatro del Carretto will bring its Biancaneve (Snow White) from December 1 to 3.

Puppets, marionettes and actors wearing masks come and go from a closet. Sometimes the closet is a castle full of danger, sometimes it is a safe haven. Using the magic of the theatre, people are transformed into marionettes.