The script received a fund for young playwrights from the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation in 2024. The Xi’an Theatrical Co., Ltd. drama, The Lychee Road, was displayed at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Online on invitation, granted the Best Audience Award for Cross-Cultural Exchange.
The drama, The Lychee Road, is adapted from a critically acclaimed masterpiece by MA Boyong. Inspired by Tang Dynasty poet DU Mu’s verse, “A horse galloped past with dust raised, carrying lychees to please the concubine”, the drama depicts a miserable life led by the “most formidable logisticians” in the Tang Dynasty. The protagonist LI Shande works like a dog to “transport lychees” to stay safe. From the futuristic preservation technology to the philosophy of officialdom, everything subtly reveals the living dilemma faced by both ancient and modern “labourers”. The story centres on the protagonist’s transformation from a “toiler in the workplace” to a “self-awakening person”. At the end of the story, he gives up his honour and chooses to yell for the disadvantaged. What he does directly rakes up the faults of the utilitarian society, making it possible to take history as a mirror to reflect how contemporary souls are struggling hard and transcending themselves.
Starting with a core cliffhanger of “how to reach Chang’an with lychees before it goes bad in three days”, the plot unfolds as a grand drama that is all about “speeding up transportation to the limit under ancient conditions” - from preservation technology to experimentation, to transport route planning, to gambling in officialdom, and to cash crunch, there is everything linked to one another, making the drama a blockbuster suspense film. When racing against the deadline frantically, the protagonist gradually sees the absurdity of power games. So ultimately, he stands up as a “rebel” to challenge authority, elevating his arc light of growth to a struggle against the fate fettered by his era. As for modern workers, not only do they feel suffocated when working for “nine hours a day, six days a week”, but they can also be motivated by their “original aspiration”.
The Xi’an Theatrical Co., Ltd. and Shiwu Drama have boldly broken the rigid pattern of historical drama, with an LED tube matrix set up to help construct a modern visual language. The actors perform with their high-intensity body movements to simulate quick travel on a long and arduous journey. Meanwhile, the video projection technology and diverse sound effects are used to transform “lychee transport” into a cyber-parkour tour across space and time. The scene changes smoothly amidst Tang-style buildings and futuristic stage lights, with a “cyber city of Chang’an” taking shape in a collision between tradition and modernity.
The drama is also full of spatiotemporal tension, which MA Boyong usually tries to present. In this way, the small fry' way of survival in turbulent times is distilled to a universal allegory. The director team retraced the “Lychee Road”. They drove from Guangzhou to Xi’an to immerse themselves in the local customs and traditions along the way, then with the stretches of natural landscape and civil life scenes integrated into the stage scenery. When the transport chain, built by LI Shande with his painstaking efforts, crumbles amid the flames of war, the audience sees not only how the flourishing Tang Dynasty collapses, but also how every individual struggles courageously alone against the fate - “Nothing dreadful can stop me”. Beneath the legend is a heartfelt tribute to the ordinary hero.
In the 14th year during the Tianbao Regime of Tang Dynasty, LI Shande takes leave to buy a house. Just then, his colleagues and Prefect LIU cause him to fall on hard times by “electing” him Person in Charge of Lychee Transport. He thought that he had got a cushy job, but later, he comes to realise that he has fallen into a trap where he may get beheaded. In desperation, he takes advice from a close friend of his and travels personally to the Lingnan area. There, he seeks solutions to all possible problems such as origin selection, fruit preservation, coordination in transit, personnel support and route determination. He goes through all sorts of difficulties in the Lingnan area, such as cash crunch and staff shortage, as well as other difficulties created by the local officials. After that, he receives funds from Miss Atong, a local expert in lychee planting, and SU Liang, a foreign merchant. After many experiments, he finally chooses a method for lychee transport.
But during the process of implementation, he encounters more formidable difficulties, such as assassination, divestment, an additional order for lychees, intensification of contradictions with fruit growers, administrative failures along the route… After going through untold hardships, he succeeds in sending lychees to the imperial concubine on her birthday. Yet during the transportation, his men suffer a lot, undergoing the wringer, some even kicking the bucket or having their family broken up. In the end, he argues strongly on just grounds before Right Prime Minister, and even voices outspoken criticisms that may bring a scowl to the emperor’s face, thus losing his wealth and rank. Fortunately, the emperor, mindful of his service in transporting lychees, spares his life. Finally, he and his family are exiled to the Lingnan area, where he gets the chance to stay kind and remain true to himself.
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