Another production, the Cantonese Opera, Life, Death and the Skull, turns an ancient philosophical tale into an exploration of friendship, mortality and grief.
Though different in style and subject, the two works share an interest in their characters' inner lives — and in the questions those stories might raise for audiences today.
For the scriptwriter of The Face in the Mirror, Yu Sihan, the idea began with a fascination with the magical mirror in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber.
When she first read the novel in middle school, she was captivated by the story of "fengyue baojing", a mirror that reveals the tension between desire and reality. One side offers the image a person longs to see; the other confronts them with a skull, exposing the truth behind their fantasies.
