Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm, The(Leiyu,1934)---Written by Cao Yu, this full-length modern drama features the complicated relationships among the members and servants of a large well-off family and the family disintegration as a result of the morbidity and corruption in old China.

Thunderstorm

 A son of a wealthy family, Zhou Puyuan, has an affair with the family maid, Shipping, and she bears two sons. After he marries a wealthy woman he keeps the eldest son and drives Shipping away with the youngest. Shipping marries a butler, Lu Gui, and they have a daughter , Sifeng. An entangled family history is played out in what turns out to be a tragic ending. The play was first premiered in the 1930s in Chongqing, but was later presented in Beijing in 1954 by the Beijing People's Art Theater and then staged in Shanghai in 1959 by the Shanghai People's Art Theater.

 It is in the repertoire of both Theaters. The play has been also adapted into a film with the same name twice, and performed as a ballet by the Shanghai Ballet Troupe in 1983. Playwright: Cao Yu; directors: Xia Chun (Beijing) and Wu Renzhi (Shanghai).