Theater of life

Wang Chaoge, director of the show Encore Wutai Mountain.

The two first met casually in 2010, when both of them presented works at the Venice Biennale. Last year, Wang met quite a few architects to exchange ideas about the new theater at Wutai Mountain.

Wang wanted a theater that "matched the environment of the mountain, with no rigid shape, that allowed sound and movement".

"All the architects I talked with thought I was crazy, that I knew nothing about architecture. But when I explained my idea to Zhu, in just 10 minutes, he sketched out a building and said to me, 'This is maybe what you want'."

It was, in fact, exactly what she wanted: "What you see now in the valley of the mountains is a shape of seven-folding volumes of Buddhist classics," Wang says.

She calls it Campanula Palace because thousands of bells shaped like the blossoms, commonly known as bellflowers, hang under the eaves, carry the sound of the theater far away.

"Wutai Mountain is a treasure trove of Chinese Buddhist temple halls and palaces. It's not wise to simply copy a traditionally styled building. I decided to create a contemporary architecture that would not look bizarre in the environment," says Zhu, adding that stones taken from the mountain were the major material used.

The architect says it's the first time he has been commissioned to design a theater specially for a performance. "I had not expected that I would be deeply involved in the show before it started—I'm part of the crew staff," he says, revealing that Wang has invited him to continue their collaboration in Wang's next project, Encore Malacca, her first show abroad.

Encore Wutai Mountain is staged daily at the Campanula Palace.