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REUTERS
BEIJING
A TOUR of a 136-year-old political drama by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was cut short in China after some members of the audience in Beijing shouted out at the performers and called for freedom of speech.
Berlin-based theatre company Schaub'fchne was to kick off two performances of"An Enemy of the People", which deals with issues including corruption and manipulation of the masses, in Nanjing in Jiangsu province starting Thursday.
But the theatre cancelled the shows, citing"technical reasons on stage".
During the first of three shows at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts last week, some members of the audience stood up during an interactive scene with performers and exclaimed that a lack of freedom of speech is China's biggest problem, a witness said.
"'The family name of our media is the Party', someone else also shouted," the theatre-goer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
