Love, sex and marriage seem to be enduring themes in Beijing's theater scene and the new play Midnight Love Club purports to take a serious look at these.

The story revolves around the personal lives of a group of friends, and sex is the window through which the main cast of six explores such ideas as first love, marriage, hedonism, and opportunism.

Here you will find a club's owner who desires love but fears marriage; a young man who loves one woman but is engaged to another; a PR girl who tries her very best to find a sugar daddy; a school teacher who divorces her CEO husband and desperately seeks to marry a young man; a peasant girl who dreams of becoming a pop star; and a good-natured, simple young man from the countryside who does everything to urge his girl to stay with him.

How much love is needed for sex? How much sex is needed to conquer love? Is love just a game that never lasts? What kind of person does one really want to marry? The play tries to explore these complex issues through each character's perspective and presents their consequences.

The play has enough kissing, hugging and suggestive love-making to titillate, enough humor to blunt the sharp edges of the storyline and enough sensitivity to identify with its youthful target audience, not to mention the avant-garde aquarium-like setting, the illusion of rain on stage and the soft background music.

The playwright Yu Rongjun is adept at dealing with stories set in a city while director Hang Kai is a leading director in small theater scene. The producer Bian Wentong has already impressed audiences with Who Loves? Who Cares?

7:30 pm till Aug 2, Oriental Theater, East end of the Oriental Plaza, Dongdan. 8666-5336, 400-810-3721

東方先鋒劇場，東單

(China Daily July 21, 2009)