A Dream of Red Mansions is hardly light material – sprawling, tragic, saturated with longing – but this season it takes on an unexpected form. The National Ballet of China, one of Asia’s most formidable companies, is translating the Qing dynasty novel into the language of Western ballet, a collision of traditions that feels both daring and inevitable. On stage, more than 80 dancers move through heartbreak, desire and the slow collapse of a noble family, their gestures sharpened by elaborate sets, intricate costumes and lighting shipped straight from Beijing. At its core sits a love triangle so doomed it feels modern, the kind of story that asks whether duty and feeling can ever live side by side. The ballet suggests the answer, as always, is complicated.
September 20. B2,000-4,500 via here. Thailand Cultural Centre, 2.30pm and 7pm