The Wuzhen Theatre Festival, held annually in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, has long been known for its large-scale stage epics. Each year's opening production is a showpiece, often drawn from world-renowned theater companies.

Now in its 12th year, the festival is set to open with perhaps its most ambitious work yet. For the first time, an entire festival section — City of Humanity — will be devoted to a single production: Anthropolis-Marathon by the German troupe Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg.

Based on five Greek mythological tales — Dionysus, Laius, Oedipus, Jocasta, and Antigone — each run spans three days, totaling around nine hours. The production will be staged twice, giving more Chinese audiences a chance to experience it, while pushing the performers' stamina to the limit.

"This five-part series is considered a milestone in contemporary theater. It tells one of the most famous myths in the history of European civilization, which is the saga of the city of Thebes," said Meng Jinghui, artistic director of the festival, at a news conference on Aug 5.

"It takes the saga of Thebes and reframes it for modern times, seeking peace amid conflict. For today's world, it carries profound meaning."

According to the festival committee, preparations for the Wuzhen performances started more than two years ago. The technical team made six trips to Germany to coordinate the massive project.

This year, the German theater company will bring more than 90 performers, 72 crew members and over 400 pieces of stage equipment to the water town of Wuzhen.

The production has already earned top honors in Germany. In the 2023-24 critics' poll by Theater Heute magazine, Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg was named "Theater of the Year", Lina Beckmann won "Actress of the Year", and Laius was voted "Production of the Year".

Meng recalls first watching Laius: "I barely understood a word of German, yet for an hour and a half I laughed nonstop. It was unlike any performance I'd ever seen."

City of Humanity is one of the six sections of this year's festival, running from Oct 16 to 26 with 25 specially invited productions.

Among them, 10 productions are from China, while 15 are works from nine other countries including France, Canada and Malaysia. In total, there will be 71 performances across 10 venues in Wuzhen.

For this year's main poster, contemporary artist Xu Bing designed the festival theme "Swirling Up "with his iconic "square word calligraphy", blending English words with the brushstrokes and structures of Chinese calligraphy.

"We are delighted to see many new theater festivals emerging across China in recent years. As an established festival, Wuzhen Theatre Festival has been striving to achieve a higher level of self-growth," says Chen Xianghong, cofounder and chairman of the festival.

"To me, 'Swirling Up' doesn't mean rising from the ground, but steadily advancing to the next level, surpassing oneself and ascending to new heights."

Chen highlights two defining traits of the festival — its professional caliber, with renowned theater experts, and its unique setting in the Wuzhen Xizha scenic area, known for stone-paved alleys, winding waterways, and excellent visitor amenities.

This year brings a major change: development along the Grand Canal within Xizha. Theater markets and live music gigs, once in the Beizha zone, will move closer to the main venues.

"I imagine people watching the sunset, boats drifting by, and then sitting with friends to discuss theater, enjoy music, and sip wine," Chen says. "And there will be surprises — things you won't find in city theaters."

He says the festival continues to nurture rising artists, with an increasing presence of young creators both onstage and behind the scenes. Many alumni of the Emerging Theater Artists' Competition have returned with full productions.

The examples include She Mujie, who was shortlisted in the 2023 edition of the competition. This year, he will bring his adaptation of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's The Lady with the Little Dog, which explores the emotional fatigue beneath outward sophistication.

Another young director Lin Xi'er, who won the Special Attention Award in 2023 with a monodrama, will stage Macbeth in the Warehouse. In the story, a 29-year-old director grapples with a 43-year-old amateur actress, the only person who auditioned for a role, on gender issues during rehearsals.

"Wuzhen Theatre Festival has become a platform for young practitioners to show their work," Chen says. "That is part of our mission, and something we take pride in."

The international lineup includes Cyrano de Bergerac by Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki, Flower in the Mirror, Moon in the Water by Stan Lai, who is also the festival's cofounder and director, and Multiple Bad Things by Australia's Back to Back Theatre.

Last year, the festival introduced the Granary Reverie segment, which allows young theater practitioners to showcase their avant-garde works in a revamped granary. This year, the segment returns with a focus on female directors.

The script-reading events are set for an upgrade this year. Led by professional directors Ding Yiteng and Yang Ting, the new Qipao Xiju (starting point theater) segment will offer audiences a more immersive experience by combining script reading and live performances.

"We hope that in the future, the festival will become a starting point for global theater, and a platform for the promotion, and even commercial exchanges, of new theater productions," says Huang Lei, cofounder and producing director of the festival.