Adding depth to characters by subtracting plot

The Los Angeles-based Theater Movement Bazaar stages Anton's Uncles in Beijing and Shanghai. By singing, dancing and fighting, actors discuss their attitudes toward middle age, struggles and longing. Photos provided to China Daily

Four men wander the stage gulping vodka, sometimes sitting in a few chairs.

They sing, dance and fight. They discuss their attitudes toward middle age, struggles and longing.

This is the interpretation of Los Angeles-based Theater Movement Bazaar's co-founders Tina Kronis and Richard Alger of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's century-old Uncle Vanya - re-invented as Anton's Uncles.

The husband-and-wife-run company's latest work will soon come to Beijing and Shanghai. It has staged about 70 performances in the United States and Europe in the past four years.

"We are big fans of Chekhov, and we have adapted all his plays as well as one of his short stories," says choreographer and co-director Kronis.

"Uncle Vanya's sense of regret and ennui are great conditions for a tragic-comedy, which is the story we seek to explore."

Kronis is a former dancer who studied and performed theater. She was fascinated by the complexity of the characters in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in college.

Like other Theater Movement Bazaar shows, Anton's Uncles is a concept in which "a classic is examined, pulled apart and reinvigorated with a new text, song, dance and a vibrant physicality", she explains.

Alger says: "Our hope was that the audience would follow the journey of these men and that the physicality was understandable and would heighten the tragedy and comedy."