A festival program for change

I was fully booked last week. Four different performance companies invited me to their shows and they all said: "This is the highlight program in the on-going Seventh Beijing International Theater and Dance Festival".

Well, it did not take me much time to make the decision to watch American Ballet Theater's gala of contemporary ballet. I did not want to miss the prestigious ballet company's China debut. But I missed the German play Intrigue and Love on Friday, a one-person musical on Saturday, and a Chinese drama adapted from a Chinese spy movie on Sunday.

"What a variety of programs the Beijing International Theater and Dance Festival is offering", you might say. Yet, it is Beijing's performing arts agencies that do the job and the festival organizers just lump them together and call it a "festival".