BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The first Chinese-written English play, "The Power," has been a box-office failure after a week's show in Beijing.

    The play, which tells a royal story in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in English, is on show from Aug. 25 to Sept. 4. No more than 25 percent of the total 1,600 seats, however, were occupied on average after a week's performances, said Tong Li, the American Chinese playwright and producer of the play.     

    "I expect to retrieve little from the investment of 1.4 million yuan (about 173,000 US dollars)," he said.     "The Power," directed by an American director Elena Araoz and starring Australian Chinese actress Nina Liu, represents the measure between love and hatred, the imperial power and fatherhood by the famous story about the Emperor Tang Taizong, his favorite harem Wu Meiniang - later the only Empress in Chinese history Wu Zetian - and the prince Zhi.     

    Tong blamed the box-office failure on the time. "The students studying here are away from Beijing because of the summer vacation, and the foreigners in Beijing have also gone back home with their children in summer," he said.     

    In addition, the first round of performances is mainly to thaw the frozen English play market in China and win good fame, Tong said.     

    The English play is of the western style in theme, writing, thinking pattern and language style while its story, costume and music have the Chinese feature.     

    The play is for the Chinese white collar class and foreigners, Tong said, adding he hopes it will help the Chinese audiences enjoy the English language art and the Chinese play and western play could communicate with each other.     

    Facing the depressed box-office result, however, Tong said sadly, "We need an audience."     

    The only two English plays performed during the three-week 2005 College Theater Festival of China held in Beijing August also got cold shoulders from the Chinese audiences because of the language problem.     Broadway's Joseph Graves, current art commissioner for the Institute of World Theater and Film of Beijing University, acted in the monodrama "Revel's World of Shakespeare" on Aug. 23 and 24.     

    His play only attracted about 20 people for either performance, no more than half of the seats.     

    A similar thing occurred in "Workout," by another US playwright Wendy Wassertein. The seven-minute monodrama was shown by a student who majors in English in University of International Business and Economics on Aug. 13 and 14. ¡¡Enditem