Inside the rotating stage

A theatre built around the stage

The architects' account calls the building a custom-made indoor theme theatre with a capacity of 1,500, and says it was completed in 2021. An awards entry for its interior says it was tailored for the play Chongqing 1949. That makes the stage and the building one project, not a show moved into an older hall. The theatre was designed around the machinery of the turning stage, so the auditorium and the sets are planned together rather than added to one another, and the building itself is part of what you pay to see.

The five rings

According to the show's chief producer, quoted in China Daily's Chinese edition, the stage's five rings turn independently and in several directions, so the scene changes as they move. An encyclopedia entry on the play also describes five rings, with the audience and the performance space interwoven. China Daily's English report describes a main set on a rotating 360-degree stage, with smaller rotatable stages used for some scenes. The accounts differ in detail, but all agree that the stage turns through 360 degrees and that the audience is part of the arrangement.

Where the audience sits

A travel guide to the show says the first three rings hold the main scenery, including the Ciqikou wharf, the stilted buildings and the prison lookout posts, while the last two rings serve as both performance space and audience seating. It adds that some seats turn with the stage and others are fixed. The ticket text lists the 360-degree rotating stage as optional, so the seat you choose on the booking page decides how much of the turning you feel from your own chair.

Read next: Chongqing 1949 show: how to book

What the sets are made of

The ticket text lists the wooden texture of stilted buildings, the iron bars of prison cells, the damp air of a dock scene and the breeze of sails unfurling. A huge ship hull rises from one side of the stage under blue light. The interior designers say they drew on the features of a mountain city: a hanging foot tower, old brick walls and staircases, reinterpreted with modern design techniques. The ticket text says guests can feel the wood of the stilted sets and the damp air of the dock scene.

Sound and light

The ticket text describes a panoramic audio-visual display with naked-eye 3D technology and 3D sound effects. It lists the cries of vendors from a distant old street and the tap of guards' leather boots on stone slabs as sounds placed around the listener. An encyclopedia entry on the production adds intelligent lighting. Some guests say the English translation headset is hard to hear, so it helps to know the story before you arrive.

The building from outside

The architects describe a curved curtain wall with a red theme, wrapped around a red relief wall of the numerals 1949 set in different fonts. The interior designers say they drew on the features of a mountain city, so the outside and the inside both borrow from Chongqing's hillside streets. The facade is worth a look before you go inside, because the lobby and the exterior are the places where you can take photographs, which the show's visitor guide does not allow during the performance.

Who this isn't for

A turning stage is not for everyone. If you dislike movement in a seat, choose a fixed section, which one travel guide recommends for older visitors, young children and pregnant women. If you want to photograph the machinery, remember that photography and videography are not permitted during the performance, so the lobby and the facade are your only chances. And if you prefer a conventional stage watched from a single angle, this show will feel different from what you expect.