Immersive theater served with a side of coffee
Amid laughter and the aroma of coffee, a drama, part of the ongoing 3rd Shanghai Coffee Culture Week, is being staged in Xuhui District, offering a feast for both the eyes and the taste buds.
"Crazy Eight Hours," an immersive drama, is about a white-collar worker looking for love and mirrors the love attitudes of people nowadays.
Breaking the traditional performance style, it is staged at a theater that also serves as a Western-style restaurant, cafe and bar. Coffee, steaks, and ice-cream are served during the performance, blending coffee and food culture into the drama ingeniously with the interactive experience of the performers and audience members featured.
The performance utilizes different performance genres such as stage play, Shanghai farce, and drama, offering a range of experiences to the audience.
"Coffee is popular among Shanghai's white-collar workers, and it is an interesting blend of coffee and immersive drama," said Li Qian, producer of the drama.
"We hope to break the barrier of stage and the wall between performers and audience, and make the audience feel free and easy in a comfortable atmosphere while watching the drama," she said.
"It is planned to introduce traditional Chinese opera into the drama, which seems to be far from the young generation nowadays, to promote the gems of traditional Chinese culture," Li said.
Shanghai boasts of being the city with the most cafes in the world, with 8,530 cafes, an increase of 673 from 7,857 last year, according to the China Urban Coffee Development Report 2023 released at the opening ceremony of Shanghai Coffee Culture Week.
Performance info
Dates: 7:30pm, through the end of June
Tickets: 80-380 yuan
Venue: Drama Star, 剧星
Address: 52 Wuzhong Road, Xuhui District, 上海市徐汇区吴中路52号
