The classic drama The Butcher will be adapted and staged by Beijing People's Art Theatre to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Senior artists from the theatre including Zhu Xu and Zheng Rong, who participated in the drama's debut in China over two decades ago, will perform the lead roles in the new edition.

The drama by Ulrich Becher is set in the days of the Anschluss of 1938 until the end of the war, featuring a Viennese butcher whose common sense rather than intellect tells him to oppose the Nazis.

The drama was performed in Beijing and Shanghai in 1982 by Mannheim National Theatre of Germany and was the most successful foreign play performed in the country at the time.

(CRI.com March 17, 2005)