It has nothing to do with the Hollywood movie of the same title. Yu is an award winning playwright, whose work "'WWW.COM" was staged in the English language recently.

The new play has only two middle-aged male characters, a psychologist whose wife was murdered, and a policeman inquiring about the case. The story unfolds through the dialogue between the two men.

Such a structure requires a great deal from the two actors, Yin Zhusheng and Wei Chunguang, as well as from the director, Xiong Yuanwei, vice-president of the Arts College of Shenzhen University.

Playwright Yu has been successful in catching the feelings of modern urban dwellers, pointing sharply to the frailty and pain in their lives.

The stage designer Sang Qi has made a bold experimentation of the work, creating a highly depressive and thrilling visual effect.

Shortly after the detective play is a large-scale play "Chang Hen Ge", a play adapted by Zhao Yaomin from a novel of the same title by local productive novelist Wang Anyi. "Chang Hen Ge", literally Elegy of Eternal Regrets, is an ambitious play depicting the life and love story of a Shanghai woman, once the third prize winner of a beauty pageant in the late 1940s, throughout the 20th century.

The preparation for "Chang Hen Ge" took two years. The long-awaited work will be staged in April.

What Lies Beneath

7:15pm, March 7-29 (No show on Mondays)

Dramatic Salon

3F, 288 Anfu Lu

Tel: 6473-0123, 6473-4567

80 yuan

Chang Hen Ge

7:15pm, April 10-23 (No show on Mondays)

Dramatic Arts Centre

288 Anfu Lu

Tel: 6473-0123, 6473-4567

100-800 yuan

(Shanghai Star February 22, 2003)